US private space ship blows up on lift-off

[struggle4progress]

Two young men have vowed to keep trying to launch a manned rocket into space although their craft, with three test dummies aboard, blew up shortly after lift-off over the US Pacific coast.

Phillip Storm and Eric Meier, presidents of Space Transport Corporation, are vying for a $US10 million Ansari X Prize, for the first group to send into space a privately-funded craft carrying three people twice within two weeks.

The front-runner in the competition is SpaceShipOne, an US aircraft that a pilot flew into space in June.

The 26-year-old pair's Rubicon 1 rocket exploded on Sunday shortly after take off. It was the rocket's first attempt.
<snip>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200408/s1172665.htm


Let's form a private consortium to colonize Mars with leading Republicans before the end of this decade.