NYC Letter: Unicorn Watch -- Stratolaunch Systems

Day 1,058 of CHOPE

REID: GOP'S MILLIONAIRE JOB CREATORS
ARE IMAGINARY LIKE 'UNICORNS'

WASHINGTON December 12, 2011 (The Hill) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) suggested on Monday that millionaires who create jobs are a mere figment of Republicans' imaginations. Mr. Reid from the Senate floor:

Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They are impossible to find and don't exist.

Spotted!

THIS INSANE GIANT MOTHERSHIP
WILL LAUNCH ROCKETS INTO ORBIT

December 12, 2011 (Gizmodo) - This is not a fantasy project. This is going to be real: a gigantic 385-foot wing span, 544-tonne plane powered by six 747 engines that will serve as a flying launch platform for 490,000 pound orbital rockets.

It's the new project of Paul Allen and Burt Rutan [Stratolaunch Systems founder]. And it looks insanely amazing.

The millionaire unicorns.

Where will it be built?

The ship will be built at the Mojave Spaceport, New Mexico, while the rockets will be built by SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. The integration—which includes the mating system—will be built by Dynetics Space Systems in Huntsville, Alabama.

That would be domestic jobs in three states.

Who is behind this project?

Paul G. Allen is the Microsoft founder, hyperbillionaire and investor on many weird and wonderful ventures, including the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array and SpaceShipOne, the ship that made the first private suborbital flight.

Rutan built that ship, as well as its mothership, WhiteKnightOne and the 2.0 versions for Virgin Galactic: WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. He is the legendary aircraft designer and founder of Scaled Composites, now located at the Mojave Spaceport, California.

The launchers will be provided by SpaceX, the successful rocket company founded by Elon Musk.

OR -- Mr. Reid could just tax the bejesus out of these guys and take a bus to the moon.

CHOPE.

Under-taxed millionaires creating jobs.