Virgin Galactic

lord lucan

Richard Branson launches his "Virgin Galactic" enterprise officially today. Here's the official website:http://www.virgingalactic.com/

I'd love to have a go on it but until such a time as i win the lotto the $200,000 price tag will be well out of mine and most peoples reach. With a bit of luck prices will come down if it's successful and a few years down the line it might be possible.

jumpguy

It's a shame he had to launch it now, right in the middle of a recession! However, the first tickets had been booked far in advance anyway. I have no doubt it will be successful, and I love Richard Branson for making it a possibility. Fair play.

It's probably better to wait on a few more years anyway, technology will advance, and not only will the price come down, but the amount of time you can spend in orbit will increase.

Stargate

Anyone booking THIS flight hehe

http://www.memorialspaceflights.com/

jumpguy

Horribly enough, I laughed at that! Could you imagine if the rocket exploded at launch. A memorial to remember!

Money better spent launching a live person into space.

Stargate

jumpguy wrote: »

Horribly enough, I laughed at that! Could you imagine if the rocket exploded at launch. A memorial to remember!

Money better spent launching a live person into space.

That would be a bummer for sure : Live your life dreaming of being in space someday , you save , pay your money .......Rocket goes tits up on launch

All jokes aside : flights start at $700 haha called Earth rise service , we could start saving now jumpguy , the dearest one i think is $12,500 :P and thats to launch you into deeeeeep space ... how wonderful eh?
:cool:

Stargate

lord lucan wrote: »

Richard Branson launches his "Virgin Galactic" enterprise officially today. Here's the official website:http://www.virgingalactic.com/

I'd love to have a go on it but until such a time as i win the lotto the $200,000 price tag will be well out of mine and most peoples reach. With a bit of luck prices will come down if it's successful and a few years down the line it might be possible.

I love the layout of the site , really nice ,;)
Jez did you see the price ........

" Book your place in space now and join around 250 Virgin Galactic astronauts who will venture into space.

Tickets cost $200,000 and deposits start from $20,000. " :eek:

i think i`ll take the flight meantioned above lol :pac:

jumpguy

Stargate wrote: »

That would be a bummer for sure :D:D Live your life dreaming of being in space someday , you save , pay your money .......Rocket goes tits up on launch

All jokes aside :):cool::P:pac: flights start at $700 haha called Earth rise service , we could start saving now jumpguy , the dearest one i think is $12,500 :P and thats to launch you into deeeeeep space ... how wonderful eh?
:cool:

Beautiful. Does it have to be cremated? I much prefer the idea of a dead body hurtling through deep space, not a boring urn. It'd be definetly hilarious.

EDIT: I couldn't find on the Virgin Galactic website, how long you get to spend in microgravity. I wondered why - it's only 6 minutes.

Stargate

jumpguy wrote: »

Beautiful. Does it have to be cremated? I much prefer the idea of a dead body hurtling through deep space, not a boring urn. It'd be definetly hilarious.

Haha jumpguy , you`d probably die laughing , sorry couldnt help it :D

Somehow i like the idea of this site , better than being in an ole box jumpguy , imagine we could be swept on the solar winds to far off Saturn and beyond , ashes to ashes and all that haha become part of the cosmos , come back as a little meteor and some kid might see your ass light up the night sky haha

jumpguy

Ahh I'll hold on and hope I can live to do it. The best use you have being dead and in space is if you were put in the direction of Mars, to land infront of Spirit to act as a solid ground so it could get out of the bad ground it's in.

Stargate

jumpguy wrote: »

Ahh I'll hold on and hope I can live to do it. The best use you have being dead and in space is if you were put in the direction of Mars, to land infront of Spirit to act as a solid ground so it could get out of the bad ground it's in.

:P Poor ole Spirit eh?


SS2 is in its infancy jumpguy , in 10 years times who knows what we will be capable of , anyone know how much Mr Branson has invested in this ??? Must be astronomical to say the least :eek:

lostexpectation

big mofo ain't it

Mr Benevolent

Galactic... it's about as galactic as a paper aeroplane. There is no way SpaceShip2 could get into orbit or anywhere near it, this is essentially an extremely expensive advertising campaign for Virgin (a company that is doing very badly). It can get high, that's about it. The Shuttle could get to 2000 miles altitude if it just went straight up and didn't bother about getting into orbit. There's nothing revolutionary about this, it's more of an expensive gimmick.

lord lucan

lord lucan wrote: »

Richard Branson launches his "Virgin Galactic" enterprise officially today. Here's the official website:http://www.virgingalactic.com/

I'd love to have a go on it but until such a time as i win the lotto the $200,000 price tag will be well out of mine and most peoples reach. With a bit of luck prices will come down if it's successful and a few years down the line it might be possible.

I was hoping theyd take air miles...:) Imagine, having the opportunity to go on it.

dbran

Confab wrote: »

Galactic... it's about as galactic as a paper aeroplane. There is no way SpaceShip2 could get into orbit or anywhere near it, this is essentially an extremely expensive advertising campaign for Virgin (a company that is doing very badly). It can get high, that's about it. The Shuttle could get to 2000 miles altitude if it just went straight up and didn't bother about getting into orbit. There's nothing revolutionary about this, it's more of an expensive gimmick.

Agree with this really. All you will ever get from this is a few minutes of weightlessness before you fall back to Earth

Just to state the obvious, sending a rocket up and down for a suborbital flight is relatively easy. However getting into orbit is a whole new ball game. Not only do you have to get up to say 200 km above the Earth, you also have to be going 18000 km per hour- horizontally- also. That would require a massive amount of additional energy, fuel etc. Definately Mr Rotamn needs to have a SpaceShip 3 for this.:)


Still I guess at least it is progress

dbran

Gurgle

Confab wrote: »

Galactic... it's about as galactic as a paper aeroplane. There is no way SpaceShip2 could get into orbit or anywhere near it

It goes into space, and is available to anyone who can pay for the trip, who said anything about orbit?

Sure, the market for a €200k spaceflight is pretty small. So was the market for transatlantic flights just a few decades ago.

Its the very first step in commercial space tourism, give it a decade or two.

jumpguy

Confab wrote: »

Galactic... it's about as galactic as a paper aeroplane. There is no way SpaceShip2 could get into orbit or anywhere near it, this is essentially an extremely expensive advertising campaign for Virgin (a company that is doing very badly). It can get high, that's about it. The Shuttle could get to 2000 miles altitude if it just went straight up and didn't bother about getting into orbit. There's nothing revolutionary about this, it's more of an expensive gimmick.

As said above, it's a start. It's opened a whole new market, and if this is very successful, more companies will get involved, building bigger and better planes that can stay in space longer. If this is successful, in 20 years time this'll be huge.

premiercounty

+1

I agree its a small start, that has taken a long time to get off the ground, pardon the pun.

Ive always been dissappointed that the space race of the 60's - JFK promising a moon landing before the decade was our & achieving it - hell yeah !! - was discontinued big style. IMO exploration is our duty and its exciting dammit, and back then we were heading about it the right way but it downhill at this stage. We need branson and his ilk to get it going and promote a little competition maybe even stoke up the "superpowers" into getting the finger out. Too much money being spend on wars for oil to bother would good old fashioned exploration. The human race has become too insular by far.

BTW wasnt Bill "you're barney bracked" Cullen supposed to be on this first flight ? He was having a row with some other Irish dude over which of em was first up. Or was that another trip ?

lord lucan

dbran wrote: »

Agree with this really. All you will ever get from this is a few minutes of weightlessness before you fall back to Earth

Just to state the obvious, sending a rocket up and down for a suborbital flight is relatively easy. However getting into orbit is a whole new ball game. Not only do you have to get up to say 200 km above the Earth, you also have to be going 18000 km per hour- horizontally- also. That would require a massive amount of additional energy, fuel etc. Definately Mr Rotamn needs to have a SpaceShip 3 for this.:)


Still I guess at least it is progress

dbran

I suppose the few minutes in 0g is what most people want. The market he's going after is the rich who want to brag that they were in space and have a nice photo of them floating around. I'd be thrilled with 6 minutes in space,i hope the venture is a success and the price comes down in the future to allow the non-rich to go.

Biggest worry for VG imo though is what effect any sort of failure/tragedy would have on the venture,any knock in public confidence could be fatal to the venture.

Yawlboy

Black Sky: the race for space. is on discovery Science now. - its the story of space ship one.

Stargate

lord lucan wrote: »

I suppose the few minutes in 0g is what most people want. The market he's going after is the rich who want to brag that they were in space and have a nice photo of them floating around. I'd be thrilled with 6 minutes in space,i hope the venture is a success and the price comes down in the future to allow the non-rich to go.

Biggest worry for VG imo though is what effect any sort of failure/tragedy would have on the venture,any knock in public confidence could be fatal to the venture.

Good point Leo , fingers crossed on that !! Hows the Tee-Shirt :rolleyes: regards to the wife , great singer , terrible at the washing :eek:

ynotdu

Personaly i hope Branson is the first passenger and just keeps going never to return................................:D

Peoples ashs going into space is nothing new:) and "she did'nt break up capt'n:)

James Doohan's(Scotty)ash's were sent into space on a Soyuz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3SjTz8mwbs