Morris Jarvis, who works for Intel, and a team of enthusiasts built the craft, dubbed Hermes, in the garage of his suburban Phoenix home with the help of technology companies like Intel, Dot Hill and Microsun.
“It’ll be ready to fly into low earth orbit within a year,” Jarvis told vnunet.com.
“All we need now is some extra funding but $1.5 million would get it airborne.”
Initially the flights will involve using a balloon to lift the craft and passengers to 113,000 feet before detaching and then being piloted back to earth.
The next stage is to attach a booster and take it higher so that passengers can experience about 15 minutes of weightlessness.
Jarvis estimates that the trip will cost about the same as a family car.
Garage space shuttle lands at IDF
By
Iain Thomson
on Aug 20, 2008 4:04PM
