04/10/2004 2:18:25 pm
Capitalism Takes Us to Space. The first private space ship, SpaceShipOne, went into space for the first time on June the 21st. The second trip took place on September the 29th and the next will take place today. Its designer, the private entrepreneur Burt Rutan, has every reason to be pleased so far. Now, multi-millionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson is inspired and talks about his Virgin corporation offering space trips in the future. The price for a trip into space will be between $ 100 000 and 200 000. Quite a lot of money, one might think, but still an enormous improvement. The current cheapest trip is with the Russian government′s Soyuz, and the price tag is $ 20 million. This is a great example of private enterprise and free competition versus government monopolies. In free competition, creativity is released, quality improved and prices reduced. The most recent frightening example of government in space is the International Space Station. Its price was first estimated to be $ 8 billion, but now most think it will end at $ 100 billion. Clearly not only earth but also space needs more capitalism.
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