Saint Anselmo's Fire

摘要

If anyone were ever canonised as patron saint of the privatisation of space-flight, Rene Anselmo would be a leading candidate. Anselmo, who died in 1995, shattered the international government monopoly on satellite communications that existed in the 1980s by founding Pan-AmSat. Anselmo's oft-repeated motto was "truth and technology will triumph over bullshit and bureaucracy". A graphic illustration of what he thought of government involvement in space could be found in the logo on the side of the rockets that launched his satellites. It was of a cartoon dog raising its leg, as if to a lamp-post.rnThis attitude resembles that of a new wave of pioneers in the space industry. Burt Rutan, the inventor of SpaceShipOne, Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, and Sir Richard Branson, the chairman of the group of companies that owns Virgin Galactic, each seek to privatise the business of transporting goods and people into space.