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Science Fiction
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Spaceflight Club For Space Enthusiasts
The Spaceflight Club has been organized by Space Adventures, a private space experiences company.
The club will make sure members get the tools, experience and training they need to be ready for
commercial space travel.
(From SpaceShipOne Landing)
“The dawn of private reusable launch vehicles is upon us. SpaceShipOne is a true triumph, when
ambition, hard work and amazing technologies have demonstrated to the world that anything is
possible,” said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. “Space Adventures'
SPACEFLIGHT CLUB enables private citizens to work toward their own dream of spaceflight. The Club
is the answer to many who question, now that SpaceShipOne has flown successfully, how can I be a
part of private suborbital flight history?”
(From Space Adventures Unveils Spaceflight Club)
Science fiction fans may recall both the enthusiasm and sense of adventure from the Jules Verne
Classic From the Earth
to the Moon, in which the Baltimore Gun Club (at the behest of its president, Impey
Barbicane) organized its members to send a projectile to the Moon.
"There is no one among you, my brave colleagues, who has not seen the Moon, or, at least, heard
speak of it... It is perhaps reserved for us to become the Columbuses of this unknown world. Only
enter into my plans, and second me with all your power, and I will lead you to its conquest, and
its name shall be added to those of the thirty-six states which compose this Great Union."
"Three cheers for the Moon!" roared the Gun Club, with one voice.
...It is reserved for the practical genius of Americans to establish a communication with the
sidereal world. The means of arriving thither are simple, easy, certain, infallible-- and that is
the purpose of my present proposal."
A storm of acclamations greeted these words. There was not a single person in the whole audience
who was not overcome, carried away, lifted out of himself by the speaker's words!
"I ask myself whether, supposing sufficient apparatus could be obtained constructed upon the
conditions of ascertained resistance, it might not be possible to project a shot up to the moon?
..by incontrovertible calculations I find that a projectile endowed with an initial velocity of
12,000 yards per second, and aimed at the moon, must necessarily reach it. I have the honor, my
brave colleagues, to propose a trial of this little experiment."
Nothing can astound an American. In America, all is easy, all is simple; and as for mechanical
difficulties, they are overcome before they arise. Between Barbicane's proposition and its
realization no true Yankee would have allowed even the semblance of a difficulty to be possible. A
thing with them is no sooner said than done.
Story from Zero G Flights Could Bolster Space Tourism, Research Industries at Space.com. To speak with a Space Adventures' Agent, call 1-888-85-SPACE if in the US, or +1 (703) 524-7172 if international.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 9/26/2004)
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