When SpaceShipOne took the X PRIZE in Oct. 2004, I recall a letter to the editor in Aviation Week & Space Technology proclainimg that the flight was no big deal since humanity had been exceeding the 62-mile altitude for decades, and that Cessnas had more advanced avionics.  Perhaps, but that misses the point entirely.  How many decades of development did it take to accomplish those facts?  And... the Wright Brothers first flight wasn't a 747 flying to Heathrow.  Context is king.

I expect we'll see similar pooh-poohing of the test flight.  I wonder if after the Wright Brothers first flight there was a letter to the editor of any newspaper lamenting the limited time and distance of the flight... and lack of in-flight beverages.  Probably. 

In November I gave the luncheon keynote at a tech entrepreneur's conference in Florida, and I asked this question:  you're listening to a screaming horde of "experts" telling you it can't be done, but there's one person in the room waving his hand who then quietly says, "I know how do that."  Who are you going to listen to?

Nothing can stop human imagination.  Nothing.  The only variable is time.