Darren Beale

The X-Prize was won a few weeks back by a high altitude plane that carries a
small 3 person rocket module as high as it can. The module is released when
the plane can’t climb any more and once free it fires itself straight up
into space.

Just before apogee it’s wing folds and it sort’ve floats back down, a bit
lit a shuttlecock. The pilot and occupants get about 4 mins in space without
much to do other than enjoy the view. When it’s back in the atmosphere it
straightens up and glides to earth. How cool is that?

The flight and prize were not covered on the main news much here and I’m
surprised. I think it’s a pretty important achievement. A private company
has designed and built a vehicle that can enter space carrying passengers.
Hopefully it’ll kick start more interest in space activity again.

What *was* covered here was the fact that Virgin have launched Virgin
Galactic

For the second X Prize flight, Richard Branson had his Virgin logo on the
tail fin (there was a special camera pointing directly at it for the entire
flight). He was also at the launch and made a speech when they knew they’d
won the prize.

You’ve got to admire the man. I bet he waited until it was obvious that
scaled composites would win and went right in there with his cheque book.