Check out the latest Christmas gift at Neiman Marcus.

I know I’m a little behind here, but Clark Lindsey has some thoughts on Star Trek and real space, based on Dwayne Day’s essay in The Space Review.

…of the first Ansari X-Prize flight. The one that corkscrewed and gave everyone (not the least of whom was Mike Melvill) a scare. Noted over at Anousheh Ansari’s blog.

Alan Boyle has an interesting “compare and contrast” of the current planned providers:

The feedback from would-be fliers has been that “the overall nature of the experience is primarily about the view, and feeling the forces,” Lauer said. Thus, both companies are trying to optimize the view of a curving Earth, spread out beneath the black sky of space. But they’re doing it using different methods.

SpaceShipTwo will offer as many portholes as it can, placed strategically around the side walls of the passenger cabin. Rocketplane, in contrast, plans to make the most of the forward view. “The best views are really out the front window, just as they are with any airplane. … When you’re in the back seats, it’s surprising how much of the forward view you do get,” Lauer said.

Back-seat passengers will each get two of their own windows as well, currently planned for placement at shoulder height and above their heads, he said.

The SpaceShipTwo concept gives you dials to watch, showing G-forces, altitude and other statistics, plus a larger cabin display. Rocketplane promises to provide a customizable video display for each passenger. And both spacecraft will be fairly bristling with video cameras to record the highlights of your out-of-this-world flight.

RpK has replaced OSC with Andrews. They’ll take over some of the systems engineering and integration work, and will be making an investment. So another one of the unsuccessful COTS bidders gets back in the game, through the back door.

[Update a few minutes later]

Clark Lindsey has a press release.

[Update at 5:30 PM EDT]

And here’s a more extensive article on not only the Jim Benson announcement, but on NewSpace in general. Bottom line (buried in the middle of the article)–investors are starting to take this industry seriously.

Mr. Benson says he “managed to raise $1 million with less than a dozen phone calls.” Some investors said yes without ever seeing a formal proposal, he says. “If I had tried three or four years ago to solicit money for this kind of private space flight, I wouldn’t have had any luck.”

Not much giggling left.

Alan Boyle has more.

And yes, I really do have some thoughts on this stuff, but I’m saving them for a couple articles I’m working on, for TCS Daily and The New Atlantis.

Jim Benson is leaving SpaceDev, the company he founded, to form a new public space travel company. Looks like he’s starting a separate spaceline to use Dreamchaser.

Dennis Wingo has some thoughts on Anousheh Ansari’s excellent adventure.

Keith Cowing has been critical of the overhyping of all the firsts. In that context, he has an interesting posting to her blog.

Bravo.

[Via Robin, who is apparently managing Anousheh’s blog]

Keith Cowing has been critical of the overhyping of all the firsts. In that context, he has an interesting posting to her blog.

Bravo.

[Via Robin, who is apparently managing Anousheh’s blog]

Keith Cowing has been critical of the overhyping of all the firsts. In that context, he has an interesting posting to her blog.

Bravo.

[Via Robin, who is apparently managing Anousheh’s blog]