"By 1973, we had a space station, the Skylab, and we had multiple probes going up to planets. So, all this wonderful stuff happened in 10 to 15 years," he told the BBC. "About that time, there should have been enormous initiatives to make it affordable for people to fly in space, not just a handful of trained NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. If you asked NASA in those days how long will it be until it is affordable so that I can fly, the answer would be, 'we're working on it and in 30 years there will be affordability.' If it is (still) 30 years, I will 90 and will a guy who is 90 get to fly?" Source: Burt Rutan, in an interview with the BBC, on the eve of SpaceShipOne's first official X-Prize flight.