Argh ... bioscience boffins miss the point

Recent news story published in Nature, a highly respected journal of cutting edge research, demonstrates that a little bit of knowledge is truly a dangerous thing.

Nature, Vol 429, 24 June 2004, page 792.
Experts challenge claims for space tourism

It's a fairly negative piece which seems to imply that Rutan and the other X-prize contenders are mere dilettants. The most awful thing was a quote they got from Roger Launius of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC concerning the SS1 flight of June 21.


Which, coming from a so-called space-history expert, sounds difficult to credit. I guess he's not a "space-present" expert. No reasoning accompanies this contemptible and instantly discarded "sound-bite".

It makes me wonder if Nature hasn't somehow taken him out of context.

In any case ... HERE is an example of how the public is encouraged to perceive privatized space travel.

Reminds me of the NRC in 'The Radioactive Boyscout'

Time will tell.

Whenever I hear critics of space tourism and private spaceflight, I think back to an incident involving the noted "space skeptic" John Pike from the Federation of American Scientists.

The following passage comes from a 1999 Space.com article:

When does Pike think space tourism might become feasible? "After I'm dead," he said.

Four years later, we have Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth in orbit, and a private suborbital rocket putting Mike Melvill in space. And John Pike and his fellow critics are still around, saying that space tourism won't work.

Radioactive boy scout... that kid was a genius, somebody ought to hire him....

I'd say that he was more of a messed up idiot savant, as long as what he was doing involved shemistry or nuclear science. His safety proceedures have a good chance of earning him a 'Darwin Award'.

As for space tourism, despite it's recent successes it's simply too early to say if it's an overall success or a waste of time.