Space Barnstorming: The Risk and Rewards For Private Rocketeers

Posted on: Aug. 13th, 2004 || Source: space.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

If privately-backed rockets fly straight and true, those successes will show that piloted space flight need not be a huge governmental undertaking. Investors may well beat a path to the doors of firms with even grander passenger-hauling space vehicles on the drawing boards.

On the other hand, it is clear that today’s "space barnstorming" also means risk-taking. Odds are that accidents will occur in flying homebuilt spaceships to the edge of space.

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