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Article: Rocketing Past NASA
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- July 19, 2009
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Washington Post. This material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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On Oct. 4, 2004, a group of revolutionaries in the Mojave Desert
sent a little dart-shaped rocket called SpaceShipOne beyond the
Earth's atmosphere.
Burt Rutan, the ship's designer, had gotten tired of waiting for
NASA to change -- to become more nimble and innovative -- or
else get out of the way. So he created the first purely privately
funded manned space vehicle. "Government space agencies want to
commit us to their old-fashioned technologies," he says. "We already
know how that stuff works. What we need is the freedom to try some
new, smarter and less expensive ideas."
On the ground, watching the smoke trails through powerful
binoculars, were two lifelong space fans from Britain: ...