I didn't necessarily desire for this to be all about religion, just about the truth. Truth is, there is a new space race going on this century, between private companies. In my opinion in twenty years time there will definitely be space hotels, and infrastructure for getting there. Not only that, people will then be looking beyond low Earth orbit and out into the solar system proper. The next century will be a very exciting time for humanity, and I intend to be around to watch most of it!
Video courtesy of Spacevidcast.com
Virgin Galactic have successfully dropped and glided Space Ship 2, aka VSS Enterprise, to a safe landing in the Mojave desert. While its a great milestone in their program, there's an awful lot else going on in the commercial space department this year.
Space Adventures have signed an agreement with Armadillo Aerospace for the supply of launch vehicles for space tourism, and are offering flights for around $100,000, roughly half the price of Virgin Galactic.
Recently, Russian company Orbital Technology has announced it is looking to put inflatable hotels into low earth orbit within the decade, providing some much needed competition for Bigelow Aerospace.
Boeing have announced they are manufacturing a human rated 'space taxi' that will sit atop currently available rockets, very similar to SpaceX's Dragon capsule. In their demonstration video however, the space station itself appears to be a mockup of Bigelow Aerospace's planned habitats, which has lead to speculation the two companies may have already come to some sort of arrangement.
The Google Lunar X Prize teams have been working hard and are starting to get to the point of booking their flights to the moon. Team ARCA successfully tested their pre-rocket balloon system, which lifts the rocket high into the atmosphere before launching it, saving considerable fuel and effort getting through the majority of the atmosphere
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