Well, thanks to the X prize and a guy with some 25 million dollars to burn, we’ve proven that a talented engineer given enough money and a willing test subject can use existing proven technology and well known and documented science and engineering to do something already proven feasible on a scale that adds little or no value to the overall equation.

Yes, congratulations to the team for getting “Space Ship One” (as if – it should be Space Shape Another One) off the ground, into space, and back safely.

Space Ship One is not, however, a great advance of anything from what I’ve read. It doesn’t lead in a direct path to some new technology to enhance our understanding of or our ability to establish a long term presence in space. It’s the ultimate sports car. It’s a refinement to the nth degree of known concepts. It’s a fabulous piece of work. But it is otherwise unhelpful.

Don’t get me wrong, I know there plenty of idiots willing to spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars on a Ferrari, and that Porche seems to be selling its $90,000 SUV capable of doing in excess of 160 miles per hour. That does not mean that either of these is in some way “Important”.

We do not need a space equivalent of a sports car. No, we need the space equivalent of a Land Rover – the real ones not the yuppie kind with DVD players to anesthetize the kids. We need the space equivalent of Peterbuilt or Kenworth long haul trucks that endless track the vast distances of the world with huge quantities of food and durable goods.

Sports cars are fun, sure. Economies are built with trucking, shipping, and rail service. When someone shows me the ability to haul a few tons of material at a time up and out of the gravity well and then back down over and over reliably, then I’ll be impressed.