that "space travel is easy. Only NASA makes it hard."

Perhaps he's learning that it's a bit more difficult than he thought. If so, then good for him. I've been a huge fan of his for 30 years and respect the hell out of him. However, the proof is in the doing. Burt's SpaceShipOne is a fascinating design for winning the X Prize. Still, given the problems on the test flights, I think it's proving to be a more challenging prospect than first thought.

I hope people can win the X Prize with no one getting killed. Given the bloody history of early air racing (and more recent air racing, for that matter), I'm somewhat skeptical about the announced plans to hold a competition in New Mexico starting in a year or so. While some first rate engineers are working on some of the projects, there are quite a few that remind me of the Granville Brothers and their dangerous GeeBee racers.

Your post also points out that the talk last week of Rutan going for orbital flight might be a bit premature. All four Russian cosmonauts who died in flight died during reentry (2 separate incidents with different causes) as well as 7 of the 14 American astronauts who died in flight. This stuff is not easy, folks.