SPACE IS VIRGIN TERRITORY
In the heart of London’s “Clubland” on Pall Mall is the booking office for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, just a hundred yards down from the Reform Club (where Phineas Fogg made his famous bet to go round the world in 80 days! Now we’re on the verge of space tourists being able to go around the world in 80 minutes!!) and directly across from the Oxford and Cambridge Club. Virgin Galactic is a pioneer in the commercialization of space.
Good thing that during my recent sojourn in London I didn’t partake in Vintage Port Happy Hour too seriously and stagger across the street to book a flight (Hey, how else am I going to get a chance to meet Lady Gaga?). Today, the Virgin Galactic Spaceship Two crashed in California’s Mojave desert killing the pilot.
All in all a bad week for commercial space. Orbital Science’s Antares rocket exploded on take-off taking with it a $25,000 space experiment by the students of a Kamloops, British Columbia high school whose beautiful town I was visiting a little over a week ago. Better luck next time!