(3 of 3)
Rutan--who took to calling NASA "the other space agency" during the X Prize competition--firmly believes the future belongs to commercial space flight. Concerned that SpaceShipOne was destined for nothing more than the National Air and Space Museum, he and Allen enlisted another aeronautics enthusiast and billionaire, Virgin's Richard Branson. Over dinner in Mojave, they sketched out a vision of suborbital and orbital space tourism over the next 75 years. Branson was instantly won over. He ordered five larger versions of SpaceShipOne with seats for five passengers and a pilot.
If Rutan's firm, Scaled Composites, delivers on time, Virgin Galactic will be up and running in 2007. Rutan knows that to sell tickets, he must make flights "at least a hundred times" safer than space travel has been so far. After all, 18 of the 430 humans who have flown into space died there. "You can't have an airline that kills 4% of its passengers," says Rutan.
Not that prospective passengers seem worried. Via the Virgin Galactic website, Branson already has a waiting list of more than 7,000 people who are apparently willing to pay the $190,000 price for a suborbital flight--more than enough to cover Virgin's investment. Among the pledged passengers are former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro and actor William Shatner. As more people sign on, says Branson, Virgin will be able to lower the price: "This isn't just a pipe dream. We will get this to the point where thousands of people can go into space." He and Rutan plan to be aboard the first Virgin Galactic flight. A mere 46 years after Alan Shepard, if all goes according to plan, Rutan will finally, personally, get to experience his zero-gravity dream.