My good friend, Nebula and Writers of the Future winner William Ledbetter has two novels out on Audible. "Level Five" and its sequel "Level Six" are about the emergence of true machine sentience and a world devastated by weaponized nano-technology. These are genuinely excellent novels and I've enjoys them myself, so be sure to check them out.

Bill tells me both are on sale for two days only, for $5.95 each, July 17th & 18th 2021.

GET THEM NOW

But as much as I hate to throw cold water on the party, I feel compelled to point out that like Blue Origins' New Shepherd launcher (also set to launch its owner soon) this is more a sounding rocket with plush seating than a proper spacecraft. Climbing 60 miles straight up and falling straight back down isn't the hard part of getting into space--achieving the 20-times-the speed of sound needed to remain in orbit is. This doesn't come anywhere near that.

We've had sounding rockets since the 1940s, and most can climb much higher for a small fraction of the cost. They can't do it with passengers on board of course, but there isn't all that much passengers can do with a few minutes of weightlessness other than gawk at the view, so...

Space Ship Two requires launch from a  high-altitude carrier aircraft, never exceeds Mach 4 on the way up, and  experiences (and can endure) only minimal heating on the way back down. It's not clear what it contributes to the conquest of space, other than PR.

I'm a little surprised we haven't heard noises about non-tourism applications for this system, and I fear that's because Virgin hasn't thought of any. The US military has recently expressed interest in use of suborbital launch for rapid troop and equipment delivery, but we already have storable ICBMs and a global military logistics reach, and although Space Ship Two might be able to cross the globe with the help of an external booster, it would then be going too fast and would burn up on reentry.

But who knows? If the mission and money are there, maybe a Space Ship Three (or Seven) will be much larger, made of stouter stuff, carry boosters and thermal control gizmotry, and make emergency pizza deliveries behind enemy lines. It's always easier to shoot ideas down than to realize dreams. We'll have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, as Space-X rushes through construction of a skyscraper-sized launch tower for its "super heavy" (BFR) booster in south Texas, the US Federal Aviation Administration warned this week that licensing and impact analysis for the tower and proposed flights have not been completed, and the tower could conceivably have to be taken down. Interesting times...

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