Last week there were not one, but two spacecraft explosions. One was the Antares rocket that was unmanned, taking supplies up to the ISS – International Space Station.
Antares – along with her Cygnus spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS) – were lost seconds after launch during Thursday’s mission from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. — NASA
The other happened over the Mojave, on a test run for Virgin’s commercial flight vehicle, SpaceShip Two. The test pilot died in the crash.
Virgin Galactic’s space plane broke apart in mid-air seconds after its re-entry system deployed prematurely in an accident on Friday that killed one of its pilots and left another seriously injured, US crash investigators have said. — The Guardian
I have a bit of space in my heart for SpaceShip Two. Having it crash is a bit of a setback, but not a fatal blow to the project. I’d have to win the lottery, or obtain a personal invite from Sir Richard himself, to be among the first to ride up to the edges of the atmosphere and back. It doesn’t mean that a grrl can’t dream.
I had always imagined myself as the first artist/writer/travel-writer/photographer to make the trip. The one who would document it for humanity. The one who would tell the first stories – think of me as Oscar Choi, the character Owen Wilson played, traveling on the space shuttle to drill into the asteroid that is making a beeline for Earth in the movie Armageddon as he was telling us his innermost thoughts and asking, what to him were profound, questions out loud to no one in particular and everyone in general.
That would be me.
Although I imagine myself, while thinking like Oscar Choi, looking something like a cross between Starbuck and Laura Roslin as they traveled aboard Galactica or Colonial One. I would have my sketchbook and camera and laptop in tow. My eyes would be bright and shiny with excitement. I’d probably throw up.
I would be scared absolutely shitless.
And I wouldn’t even care if it was the last flight I ever took this lifetime.
It’s all a bit of a daydream, really.
* * * * *
Brian Binnie, the test pilot for SpaceShip One, discusses Space Tourism during a C-SPAN interview.