Comments on: WSJ on HR 5382

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 17:46:08 +0000

Mr. Malkin, Branson has contracted Scaled Composites, not Airbus Industrie, to build his fleet. Burt Rutan has to develop his hardware to function in the US regulatory environment, regardless of where launch operations will take place. Just as Boeing has to certify its airliners under US regs even if it intends to sell to Australian domestic carriers. So, in this case, yes, the US Congress _is_ critically important to Branson’s plans.

By: Dale

Dale — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 03:08:26 +0000

Virgin Management, LLC has international influence. If the regulatory structure within the United States does not support commercialization, I’m sure his company will evaluate other options. The United States is not the only country interested in commercializing the space industry.

Commercialization of manned space flight will continue and national space policies developed to advance this commercialization effort will be important. The nations that concentrate space policies on commercialization will benefit the most. Exploration is important; to make money from exploration is more important. Yes, I’m a capitalist.

By: Perry Noriega

Perry Noriega — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 00:33:14 +0000

I agree that gadflies,eccentrics,nonconformists, and other weirdoes are the ones that typically build new empires, not stasists who are happy with the status quo. Burt Rutan and Richard Branson are two examples of this kind of thinking, and we should not expect to shoehorn the definintion of a revolutionary into the pigeonhole of convention, it just doesn’t work.

Pioneers in any field flout convention, and just like the convergence of the computer, DVD, cell phone, and entertainment center, something new cannot be shoehorned into conventional definitions, and trying to do so invited logical errors and unnecessary conflict. Let Burt and Richard be themselves, and leave nationalistic jingoism be put where it belongs, back in the late 19th and early 20th, century, not in the Networked Enterprise, WIFI’d, Internet connected 21st Century.

By: John Malkin

John Malkin — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 23:21:42 +0000

Who said Sir Richard Branson (what is his new show called?) is going to fly the spaceships in the United States. This is typical Americentric thinking.

Our Congress should understand their importance outside the U.S. is minimal.