Nuts & Volts - March 2006

would be gigantic.”

Of course, there are not only financial, but safety risks involved in developing commercial space flight. Branson said around the time of the New Mexico spaceport’s debut that Virgin Airlines is “used to transporting millions of people ... transporting them safely. And we want to keep that impeccable record. We know what our priorities are.”

But there were many deaths associated with aviation during its barnstorming days (they didn’t call those early pilots “death-defying” for nothing). And sooner or later, there will be a Challenger or Apollo 1-like disaster during these early days of manned commercial spaceflight. Rand Simberg of Transterrestrial.com who calls himself “a recovering aerospace engineer” believes that such a setback wouldn’t be permanent to this fledgling industry. “If it’s clearly negligence on the part of the service provider, it will certainly be devastating for them, but not for the industry as a whole,” he says, “Any more than an airplane crash killed the aviation industry in the early days in the ‘20s and ‘30s when, in fact, many died in airplanes.”

But risk always encourages pioneers and adventurers. The barnstormers of the 1920s paved the way to flying becoming an everyday experience for millions of people. In a few decades, we may very well look back with similar memories of the men behind Virgin Galactic, and their colorful efforts towards helping to leave the cradle behind for good. NV