Re: Historical comparisons

On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 04:46:14 -0000, in a place far, far away,
"triples" <triples@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my
monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Obviously historical comparisons have their weaknesses,
but with that caveat, what does the commercial passenger
space industry look like to you? More like the begining
of the airline industry, or more like the development of
the supersonic aircraft by the US,Europe and Russia in the
60's and 70's? Obviously one industry turned out fairly
sucessful while the other died a slow lingering death. Or
perhaps you think a totally differant historical scenario
is appropriate, or none at all. Thoughts?

There are similarities to the beginning of the commercial
air transportation industry - but differences. There is an
apparent market for adventurous people who might have to
decide between scaling Mount Everest or getting their
(commercial? tourist?) astronaut wings.

Or who want to see the beautiful views of the planet from space, or
want to play in zero g.

But there will apparently be few space passenger firms

Why is that "apparent"? There are already several, and the industry
is only getting started.

What is going to be the result of the first
accident or two?

What's the result of airline accidents? What's the result of
automobile accidents? Why are space vehicles different?

The world is so less tolerant of error now.

It doesn't matter what "the world" tolerates. All that matters is
what the customers want.
.

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