Burt Rutan, legendary aircraft and spacecraft designer, was scheduled to speak at iRise’s Fusion conference today. Unfortunately, he was unable to make it to Las Vegas – but his brother Dick and astronaut/test pilot Brian Binnie stepped in to cover for Burt.  Look for the separate blog post on their presentation.

If you missed seeing Burt and still want your “fix”, here is a link to the video of a talk he gave at the TED conference last year. In this passionate talk, Burt “lambastes the US government-funded space program for stagnating: “Houston, we have a problem. We’re entering a second generation of no progress.” He calls for entrepreneurs to lead the next wave of space exploration, funding new crafts, new (manned) missions, and entirely new approaches to space exploration.” Burt also discusses innovation cycles, private sector dynamics and inspiring 15-year-olds to dream.

You can view or download the video at this link.