Better late than never

According to a report in a California newspaper, the California State Assembly has approved a resolution congratulating the SpaceShipOne team for winning the Ansari X Prize and opening the door for space tourism. Of course, this is six months after SpaceShipOne made its X Prize-winning flight; by comparison, the US House of Representatives passed a similar resolution just days after the October 4, 2004 flight.

The resolution in question, ACR 7, was actually introduced in January. The one the Assembly passed is slightly different: if you carefully compare the original and amended versions you will find one notable difference: the amended version has deleted all the references to Sir Richard Branson made in the original version of the legislation. No reason for the change has been reported.