Personal spaceflight is coming. Since the first human spaceflight nearly 50 years ago, only a few ordinary (non-government) citizens have been into Space (above 100 km altitude) to become astronauts. The first non-government spacecraft and astronaut was the Rutan-Allen "Spaceship-One", launched in 2004, to win the Ansari X-prize. Since then, dozens of organizations have been developing small spaceships for personal spaceflight. The most promising being the Rutan-Branson "Spaceship Two" scheduled for suborbital spaceflights starting in 2010. Another spaceship "personalspaceplane" is being developed by an aerospace engineer that worked on the Atlas and Centaur space launch vehicles. A full-scale functional mock-up has been constructed. Further development of this common element design for sub-orbital, intercontinental ballistic, and orbital spaceflight is underway.
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