Virgin Galactic ride: Race for space may not just be rich man's fun & game

Craft engineering may improve transport safety on Earth; also encourage space debris clean-up

In Robert Heinlein’s classic short story, The Man Who Sold the Moon (1949), a tycoon na­m­ed Delos D Harriman is ob­sessed with being the pion­eer who first reaches the moon, and he wants to control as much lunar real estate as pos­sible. He lies, cheats, bribes, begs and persuades other mo­n­eybags to invest in his ven­ture, which ultimately succ­eeds. But his company’s board refuses to allow him to risk his life by getting onto a rocket!

It seems Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have better control of their respect­ive boards in real-life than the fictional Harriman. Branson took