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Barnstormers in Space

Jesse Walker | 8.4.2003 9:40 AM

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Johnathan Briggs profiles an assortment of D.I.Y. engineers striving for the X Prize: $10 million for the first privately funded voyage to the edge of outer space. They remind me a bit of the old Association of Autonomous Astronauts -- except some of these folks might actually make it.

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Jesse Walker is books editor at Reason and the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

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  1. Jean Bart   22 years ago

    Well, the only they would do is launch sattelites into space; at this point that is the only thing that is remotely profitable, despite all the yahoo about making "factories in space" and such supported by the Reagan administrion, et. al.

  2. Madog   22 years ago

    There might be a market for private research and souveniers too: sample-return missions from nearby asteroids, etc. If costs can be reduced like they hope then there could be a lot of universities who want to run research projects.

  3. twistedmerkin   22 years ago

    I said lunch, not launch!

  4. Douglas Fletcher   22 years ago

    Will the AAA pay for the tow if I get a flat tire on Mars?

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