GENE SIMMONS Comments On SPACESHIPONE Launch

KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons has posted the following message on his web site:

"Woke up at 2:30 am Monday morning, drove out to the Mojave desert to be a guest at an historic event. Was invited to attend the fantastic second launch of SpaceshipOne by Bob Lorsh. This is the commercial venture that successfully went into 'outer space.' The first launch was a few weeks ago. This flight was the qualifier that won the crew a $10 million dollar price.

"The private sector once again kicked Gov't and NASA in the butt and showed them how to do something for $25 million dollars — compared to the hundreds of millions/billions Nasa routinely spends on similar ventures.

"But, this is an old story. In various TV and print interviews I did at the site (I was ACTUALLY on the field...very exciting),I was reminded of an astonishing fact. It has always been the American Individual — the American Entrepreneur, not the Government who created the life we all enjoy today. Think about it. Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone. Edison and the light bulb (and phonograph...and hundreds of other inventions). The Wright Bros. and the first airplane. And all of it invented right here in America.

"It DOES all come down to one person. It always does. SOMEONE has a dream. And that person either keeps it to himself, or he spreads it to others — like a virus. And, if others start believing the dream, anything is possible. Anything. I'm living proof. If you've read my books or heard the lectures (yeah, I know. They SOUND like lectures) in America, you can do anything. You can come from another country (like myself, like Gov. Schwarzenegger, like lots of others) and scale the heights. Because America lets you go after your dreams. Like no other country in the world. Not the country I was born in. Not the country Schwarzenegger was born in. This is a tough one to swallow for all the other countries of the world. But look at it this way: While all the countries in the world discuss the glories of their past, America is walking on other planets."