Here's a UPI story about alt-space. The writer, Irene Mona Klotz (of whom I hadn't previously heard), seems to get it. It's great to see this kind of coverage in the mainstream press.

What's even better is that it's the first in a series on the emerging suborbital industry.

Irene (formerly Irene Brown) took over late last year as editor of Ad Astra, the NSS's quarterly magazine. She also regularly writes for Discovery.com on space topics.

I of course am happy to see this get some mainstream coverage, but I wish the authors (or editors) demonstrated some knowledge of space history.

When Irene writes that ". . . all other human U.S. expeditions to space have set sail [from Cape Canaveral]," she neglects the accomplishments of the X-15 program, many of whose 199 flights went into space and all of which took off nearby in California.

I like the goal of contrasting SpaceShipOne with government-space programs, but I think it would have been appropriate to pay tribute to the X-15 program, which the White Knight/SpaceShipOne resembles at least superficially.

Just my nit-picking 2 cents' worth. On balance, I enjoyed the article.

Well, she gets Mike Melvill's name wrong, and she claims Burt built the Voyager when in fact it was designed by Burt but _built_ by Dick Rutan, Bruce Evans (whose name is also on the Collier Trophy) and a horde of volunteers. The engines were created by Scaled Composites with help from SpaceDev.

Yes, perfectly normal mainstream technical reporting ... I caught the X-15 bit, but not the others. I like the attitude, but agree that it would be nice if a bit more research had been done.

It would be interesting to collect a list of common errors in mainstream technical articles. I see plenty of them and I know I miss plenty more.