Space Cadets

Soon you will be able to spend thousands of $$$ to take a 3 minute weightless ride 62 miles above the surface of the earth. That does sound thrilling, however with all of the problems we face down here (hi up there, remember us, New Orleans) we sure could find some better things to do with investment money.

To get this going, a Boston-area investment group in backing a private rocket company, XCOR Aerospace out of Mojave, Ca., that is developing a spaceship that will take off and land like an airplane. It will be a single passenger jet so the people that have more money than sense will be able to get their rocks off in relative obscurity. This whole space thing ticks me off anyway, but private joy rides by the rich and famous is such a waste.

There is one other bit of space news that I heard the other day. The American taxpayers are paying $19 million for a space loo. And get this - we are paying a Russian company for it and it will be placed on the international space station. The big thing with this one is that it provides the capability to turn urine into drinking water so as long as an astronaut pees, they will never run out of liquid refreshment. There are oh so many things that come to mind here but I think you all can fill in any blanks I leave.