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This is an old story:
Gary Hudson, the Percheron and the Conestoga, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conestoga_(rocket)
and Robert Truax (engineer of the Polaris missile) here:
Truax turned to a small "Volksrocket" design for sub-orbital space tourism flights. Funding was never available in the amounts needed to develop the project, and although the engine was test fired and a mockup built, the design never flew. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Truax
... which led to a movie and TV show called Salvage 1 with Andy Griffith:
Plot summary for "Salvage 1" (1979) ... Harry runs a salvage operation, in which he and his partners reclaim trash and junk and sell it as scrap (or as other things). Harry also has a home-made spaceship which he sometimes uses to reclaim junk satellites. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078681/plotsummary
And, of course, there are the Rutan Brothers, Orville and Wilbur ... I mean, Robert and Dick ... whose SCALED COMPOSITES company has succeeded in several astonishing feats, from a non-stop, around the world flight to a sub orbital rocket launch, and now working with Richard Branson...
http://www.scaled.com
OSHKOSH, Wis. --July 27, 2005-- Today, Sir Richard Branson (Founder, Virgin Group of Companies) and Burt Rutan (President, Scaled Composites) announced their signing of an agreement to form a new aerospace production company to build a fleet of commercial sub-orbital spaceships and launch aircraft.
http://www.scaled.com/news/2005-07-27_branson_rutan_spaceship_company.htm
Much like the Avengers or James Bond, you have to take the fiction with a grain of salt and consider the consequences of making a commercial movie in Hollywood, where bootleg romanticism exists in the interstices between naturalism and cynicism.
We have our own copies of Wall Street, Boiler Room, and Other People's Money. ... not exactly Atlas Shrugged... I have Space Cowboys and The Right Stuff in my own aviation film library.
Over and Out,
Your Captain,
Mike Mercury
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