[extropy-chat] Paul Allen to be fourth Space Power

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:
> If Scaled succeeds in winning the x-prize,
> this will make Paul
> Allen the fourth economic power in the world to gain
> independent manned
> space launch capability.

That's going a bit far, until Scaled can achieve
orbit or escape velocity.  A sounding rocket does not
a space launch vehicle make.

> IMHO this absolves
> Microsoft of all, or maybe
> just most, of all the evil things it has done...

I disagree.  Paul got out of Microsoft before it
became evil.  (There's a good reason it was able to
achieve the dominance which corrupted it.)