Word: rocketeers
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...carries spacecraft to about 9.4 miles (15.2 km). Ship separates from aircraft and fires rocket. ? SpaceShipTwo...
...first-time astronaut--like how to puke in space. They debated who would be the first paying customers. The hedge-fund honcho from California? The Internet couple from England? The hot German babe in the bikini? Or the guy from New Zealand who changed his family name to Rocket? Physicist Stephen Hawking, who believes that mankind must colonize space, sent word that he wants in--which would allow him to slip the earthly confines of his wheelchair. One of the royals (Prince Harry, Princess Beatrice?) is a possible passenger, not to mention publicity bonanza. Pilot Alex Tai, Galactic's chief...
...beginning of market competition. The Benson Space Co. is developing the Dream Chaser space taxi--a "cute little sports-car-like spaceship" that seats six and has rocket motors in the trunk. It harks back to a design developed by the Soviets for space-shuttle runs but adds an innovation: the same hybrid motor used by SpaceShipOne to win the X Prize in 2004--laughing gas shot through rubber. In comparison, the spaceship being developed in great secrecy by Bezos' Blue Origin looks like a lopped-off nose cone. The three-seater, fueled by hydrogen peroxide (yup, the common household...
...contrast, Carmack, 36, says he is just a computer guy who got bored and taught himself rocket science. Yet in aerospace circles, the gamer and head of id Software is respected for doing results-oriented rocketry work on little dime. His shop in a suburban Dallas business complex looks like something out of Star Wars--Watto's junk shop on Tatooine, to be precise. Carmack takes you first to see his graveyard of old projects to explain his philosophy: Fly a whole lot, and learn where the gotchas are. He admits that he would like to go to the moon...
Luckily, space is a gold mine. A geologist by training, Benson points out that all those comets and asteroids tumbling around in near-Earth orbit contain water and minerals. Water's components--hydrogen and oxygen--are the building blocks of life and a darn good rocket fuel as well. Some estimates put the number of asteroidal water deposits at 5 million. Some metallic asteroids have 100 times the concentration of gold of any mines on earth today. (Earth's gold results from some of those asteroids crashing into the planet.) "While exploration is going on, we can use those natural...