I wish I could be out there in the desert for the first "official" attempt of Burt Rutan and the Scaled Composites team for the X-Prize. I'm cautiously optimistic they'll succeed in this attempt and the second which will follow in two weeks if this one is successful. Especially since they succeded in their initial attempt at suborbital back in June of this year.

The amount of press Burt's getting from the mainstream media is just unbelievable. Back in the day, the mainstream scoffed at the x-prize and said it couldn't be done. That's what I love about Burt and his team. They know it's not about what you claim to do but it's about what you actually get done.

I was watching an interview with Burt last night and was once again reminded of how much his demeanor, lifestyle and even physical characteristics are like those of my grandfather, Robert Hugo. My grandfather is tall and lanky, a Renaissance man of sorts that builds his own airplanes, owns a small airport on the Left coast and races vintage cars. He doesn't care much for the "fuss" of technology and relies on his own experience and heuristics when building aircraft and race cars. He even use to race the homebuilt airplane class at Reno every year.

Burt, I wish you and the Scaled team the best of luck, even if Virgin is already trying to capitalize on your work. I understand that the joy is in making something succeed that noone else could and not necessarily in the business that gets built on it.