A lot of interesting Space news today.

The big story is that Spaceship One just barely got in the first of two qualifying flights for winning the X-Prize. I've got to hand it to Mike Melvill for pulling out of a generally creepy roll in the ascent. The Right Stuff indeed.

Another story that is getting a lot of coverage here in Canada is whether or not we want to sign on to the US missile Defense Sheild Project. Personally, I'm against it for the following reasons:

1) There are more viable ways to spend taxpayer money on defense than a systems that has not been shown to work effectively.
2) Missiles from current or future "rogue states" aren't the problem; it is terrorists who would smuggle WMDs into a North America via cargo transport
3) I find the science of the system to be nebulous, and that's not a good sign.
4) Very few countries can afford a ballistic missile program, and it's very resource intensive, requiring a lot of men, materials, and time. These things can be found more easily on the ground then trying to shoot them once in the air. The means of using WMDs mentioned in 2) above is a lot more likely, and far more scary.

Just my thoughts,

Michael