SpaceShipOne
I noticed Andrew's take on this event, and I couldn't resist putting in my 2 cents (that's tuppins, for you folks who've been in the UK too long...cheers Matt).
It's all fine and dandy, "the future is now" and all that. However, how long is it before the new U.S. space-bound missile defense system blows one of these private space missions out of the sky? And then the "this is why private space flight is a bad idea" excuses (rather than "weapons in space is a bad idea", cause that's just crazy talk).
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I figure it'll break down to something like what we have with normal air traffic. They have controllers which track planes in the air and can tell them apart from military aircraft. I suspect that every private space flight would be registered and they would be able to tell legitimate space flights apart from ballistic missiles. But it's a brand new thing, so who knows what kind of infrastructure it will need. I'm sure that they've got it figured out. SpaceShipOne was actually cleared for test flights in the US by the FCC (one of only two american companies with a license for space flight), so they know about it and are monitoring their progress.
TWA flight 800...shot down by a missile from the U.S. military...nuf sed !
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