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" SpaceShipTwo, the first commercial passenger spacecraft, was unveiled in the Mojave Desert today. At $200,000 a pop, seats won&amp;#039;t come cheap when the first flights start launching in a couple of years. But that&amp;#039;s not the point. The point is, flying to space is a cool thing that more people ought to be able to enjoy, and now they can. So it&amp;#039;s not surprising that SpaceShipTwo is bankrolled by Richard Branson. Bringing cool things to more people has been his M.O. since day one. Virgin, his megaconglomerate, started out as Branson selling LPs at below-retail prices out of the trunk of his car. This financed a store, the store financed a studio, and the studio unleashed legends like the Sex Pistols and Mike Oldfield. (Don&amp;#039;t recognize the name? You&amp;#039;ll recognize the music.) The studio financed Virgin Airlines, which later helped finance Virgin Mobile. There&amp;#039;s a Virgin Railway in there somewhere, and now Virgin Galactic. There was almost a Virgin Money, too. I&amp;#039;ve only had one experience with the airline, but I remember the flight (and the low price) well: it takes a healthy sense of humor, and respect for your customers&amp;#039; maturity, to show Donnie Darko as one of the in-flight movies not too long after 9/11. (Also, any company that slips Se\u00F1or Coconut into its &amp;quot;Latin Rhythms&amp;quot; music channel is having almost too much fun. Like the Se\u00F1or himself.) Lately, Branson has even funded a group of our oldest and wisest humanitarian leaders and told them to spend his money to do good however they see fit. Ladies and gentlemen, meet The Elders. Anyway, today&amp;#039;s endorsement is of that old type of tycoon we rarely see anymore: the populist showman. Of course these swashbucklers are in it for themselves, and none of &amp;#039;em would deny it. But they bring the rest of us along for the ride in a way that less daring, more joyless tycoons don&amp;#039;t. Branson is one of them, and he&amp;#039;s looking ever more like the last of a breed. Let&amp;#039;s hope he&amp;#039;s not. RELATED LINKS:  WHAT I&amp;#039;VE LEARNED: Branson on Being the Best, Having Sex, and More THOMAS P.M. BARNETT: Why Obama Needs to Trust the Private-Space Industry "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a6798/virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-launch-120709/?src=rss>