SpaceShipOne

Six years ago today, Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded and developed manned craft to reach space. At that time, hopes were high that Rutan was ushering in a new age of commercial spaceflight that would revolutionize human society.

In fact, no commercial, manned flights have yet even been firmly scheduled, and some people are beginning to think Rutan pulled off more a stunt than a start. Those people probably need more patience, a quality seemingly in ever shorter supply in today's world. There has been progress made in opening space to commercial activity and private human spaceflight. Bigelow Aerospace, for example, has two satellites in Earth orbit right now that have proven BA's inflatable module technology. That technology could be used to quickly establish space hotels, research labs or factories in orbit, and even bases on other worlds. Interorbital Systems plans its first manned orbital flight next year and a large lunar base by the end of the decade. Virgin Galactic is working steadily with Rutan to develop a safe flight system for paying customers. Those are a few of several projects in the early stages.

If a decade from now manned spaceflight is still the sole sphere of governments, we can say SpaceShipOne represented a stillborn promise. If even some of the projects now in the planning stages work out, however, the coming decade will be among the most exciting and decisive in human history. If that happens, Rutan's bold little effort can rightly take its place as an important moment.