One Down, One to Go

It would appear that SpaceShip One has once again made its way into space and returned safely to Earth. That's one down and one to go. Initial plans indicate that they will attempt to fly her again on Monday. If that attempt is successful and verified that would make these folks the winners of the X-Prize.

The idea behind the X-Prize was that it should serve as a carrot on a stick, to make private space flight a more common thing and to spur on innovation.

Why after making the trip to the Moon all those years ago, have we become so complacent? What does it say about our nation that the only time we excell is when we're competing with another nation. That was after all the impetus that spurred us on to go to the moon.

I hope the President Bush's new goals for space exploration will seriously be pursued. In order for that to effectively happen though, NASA needs to get off it's duff! For to long, they've simply rested on their laurels. We made a great stride forward with the space shuttle, but how long ago was it that the shuttle was first launched? Move on folks, this is getting old hat. Sure, they've made some really cool robotic investigations of Mars, but there's only so much R2D2 can do!