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In this passionate talk, legendary spacecraft designer Burt Rutan lambasts the U.S government-funded space program for stagnating ("Houston, we have a problem."), and calls for space entrepreneurs to pick up where NASA left off. Rutan won the $10M… More…

In this passionate talk, legendary spacecraft designer Burt Rutan lambasts the U.S government-funded space program for stagnating ("Houston, we have a problem."), and calls for space entrepreneurs to pick up where NASA left off. Rutan won the $10M Ansari X-Prize for SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded craft to enter space twice in a 2-week period. He's now collaborating with Virgin Galactic to build the first rocket-ship designed for space tourism. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 20:16)