Word: planes
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Most of Branson's competitors are intent on rocketing right off the launchpad. But Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flies in lazy circles up to 50,000 ft.--spy-plane territory--attached to a huge turbojet launch plane. Then SpaceShipTwo drops away and rockets off into space at 3,500 m.p.h. on its laughing-gas engine. Aboard the spaceship the two pilots will cut the rockets and the ship will coast up to 80 miles, well outside the atmosphere. For 4 min., the six passengers (now astronauts!) can unstrap and float weightless around the cabin. Earth will look like a shiny...
...with him. A Virgin Galactic prototype is taking shape on a hangar floor in California's Mojave Desert. New Mexico is negotiating leases with Virgin for its proposed spaceport, where space tourists could do some preflight vacationing. Designer Philippe Starck has been retained to add chic to Virgin Galactic plane interiors, hotels and spaceports. And despite the ticket price, sales are already closed for the first group of 100 passengers, called the Founders. "I'm absolutely sure that millions of people want to go into space," says Branson, "and it's up to us to make it affordable for those...
...brilliant if iconoclastic aircraftmaker whose unconventional designs can be found in everything from Predator drones to do-it-yourself airplane kits. Rutan's $26 million SpaceShipOne proved in 2004 that a privately built vehicle could reach the edge of space and do it twice in five days safely. The plane, bankrolled by former Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, won the $10 million Ansari X Prize (sponsored by a foundation seeking radical breakthroughs in space travel) that year and removed, once and for all, what Carmack calls the "giggle factor" in private spaceflight. "This is real. We're not dreaming anymore...
...Here's a worst-case scenario: A European Muslim decides Islam would be served by his martyrdom - a suicide attack on the United States. He takes the first plane to New York, buys all the bomb components he needs at a hardware store, and heads off to blow himself up in the middle of a concert at Madison Square Garden. Our first and probably only warning would come from a cooperative European intelligence service...
...left Boston a week earlier. My friends and I decided to charter a plane and go up to Canada to go to see a friend's film at the Toronto Film Festival...