Back to the Future - sort of

[Eric Mc]

In 1962 and 1963, 4 men rode atop the Atlas rocket to become the first Americans to orbit the earth. In a bit of ironic deja vu, the Atlas is set once more to lift American astronauts into orbit, although not a for a few years yet.
For the first time since the late 1950s, a launch gantry is being erected which will allow crew access to a spacecraft sitting on top of an Atlas rocket. In this case it isn't a Mercury space capsule, but a Boeing CST spacecraft which will sit atop a modern generation Atlas 5 booster.

The launch tower and crew access platform began construction at Cape Canaveral in the past few days.



http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/09/15/build-up-of-c...

[Simpo Two]

Reminds me that I heard on R4 this morning that Geoff/Jeff 'Amazon' Bezos is joining the space race too. Perhaps he should join forces with Musk? But it's interesting to note that space is increasngly becoming the domain of playboy billionaires. The Howard Hughes' of modern times?

[rich1231]

They all know the first entity to capture and mine an Asteroid will be the richest and most influential thing for generations.

[Eric Mc]

And don't forget that in the pre World War 1 era of aircraft development, it was rich playboys and media magnates who provided a lot of the funding.

[Mojocvh]

And don’t forget Musk's grand vision either.

[scubadude]

rich1231 said:

They all know the first entity to capture and mine an Asteroid will be the richest and most influential thing for generations.

That greatly depends on finding an asteroid with goodies on it and if they are ones that can be returned for a profit.

Spending billions to own a million tonnes of ice and rock is a bit meh...