The Race to Space, Branson vs. Bezos

Muahahaha

Branson says he is heading to space on July 11th and he is aiming to beat Bezos there by 9 days. Bezos is currently scheduled to blast off on July 20th which is the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo moon landings. Branson has no time for such symbolism and just wants to be first there to promote his Virgin Galactic space tourism project.

Will Jeff strike back and bring his own space flight forward? Theres no point being a multi billionaire if you lose a space race to another multi billionaire. Bezos will end up being a loser billionaire and that will hurt him.

C'mon Jeff, fire up those rockets!

branie2

Out of this world!

Duckworth_Luas

Once we were sending monkeys into space, now we're sending "loser billionaires".

bnt

That’s fine, it’s putting some of those billions back in to the economy rather than just locking them up in “investments”.

foxy farmer

Wasn't Bill Cullen planning on being the first Irish person on one of these flights?

L1011

foxy farmer wrote: »

Wasn't Bill Cullen planning on being the first Irish person on one of these flights?

Him and some guy who made his cash off premium rate phone lines were both claiming they'd be the first Irish up. I suspect both have cashed in their deposits since.

AllGunsBlazing

Branson has always been an egomaniac. Whereas Bezos used to seem relatively normal - for a billionaire. Midlife crisis?

nj27

This sounds like the plot of a science fiction horror movie. I’m all in. Although surprised that Bezos would let a peon like Branson get the jump on him. He only has single digit billions, pfft.:pac:

Hande hoche!

I see that Bezos is bringing along an old dear. Is it to stop God/fate exploding the rocket?

Hangdogroad

AllGunsBlazing wrote: »

Branson has always been an egomaniac. Whereas Bezos used to seem relatively normal - for a billionaire. Midlife crisis?

Bezos, normal?

Capt'n Midnight

Musk has put humans into orbit, sent a car to Mars Orbit and is flight testing something that could land on the Moon or Mars.


Branson has sent stuff into orbit multiple times. But nowhere near as rich as the other multi billionaires.


Bezos has gotten congress to fund another $10Bn in space stuff and he hopes to get a large chuck of that just because of ties with ULA.

The BE4 engine has been delayed, yet again. Amazon's satellites are going up on other people's rockets.

There are 4 NS rockets, one crashed, one for cargo (?), one that's used up it's flight hours. That leaves NS4 as the only usable one and DC-X was doing the same stuff nearly 30 years ago. The X-15 was doing it in 1963. Branson is doing it cheaper and without parachutes.

Capt'n Midnight

branie2 wrote: »

Out of this world!

Sign the petition.

silverharp

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Musk has put humans into orbit, sent a car to Mars Orbit and is flight testing something that could land on the Moon or Mars.


Branson has sent stuff into orbit multiple times. But nowhere near as rich as the other multi billionaires.


Bezos has gotten congress to fund another $10Bn in space stuff and he hopes to get a large chuck of that just because of ties with ULA.

The BE4 engine has been delayed, yet again. Amazon's satellites are going up on other people's rockets.

There are 4 NS rockets, one crashed, one for cargo (?), one that's used up it's flight hours. That leaves NS4 as the only usable one and DC-X was doing the same stuff nearly 30 years ago. The X-15 was doing it in 1963. Branson is doing it cheaper and without parachutes.

I'd be betting on Musk, not followed Bezos but not much to follow maybe. Branson's aims are a probably a little more modest

SEPT 23 1989

Its not a proper race without the involvement of the unscrupulous Sir Percy Ware-Armitage

Samuel T. Cogley

Bezos has been in Star Trek though so I think he wins.

Montage of Feck

What about Zefram Cochrane?

Capt'n Midnight

Montage of Feck wrote: »

What about Zefram Cochrane?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXw6hC7hxBA

Vic_08

I was in full support of these flights until I found out they plan on returning.

Capt'n Midnight

Vic_08 wrote: »

I was in full support of these flights until I found out they plan on returning.

Sign the petition.

One things for sure he appears to be confident that none of the designers/manufacturers or builders have cut corners to save a few quid!

Atlantic Dawn

I get the impression neither is ready yet, I expect one will end in tears.

Muahahaha

T minus 6 days, check out the fancy blue boots on the crew

https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1411525644576567296

Hande hoche!

The uniforms are funky. Wonder how Bezos will compare...

Gregor Samsa

Hande hoche! wrote: »

The uniforms are funky. Wonder how Bezos will compare...

He has a selection:

Hande hoche!

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

He has a selection:

Those are very unsexy. No wonder he is going to be beaten by Branson.

Dohnjoe

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Those are very unsexy. No wonder he is going to be beaten by Branson.

Unless..

branie2

Stupid sexy Flanders!

Muahahaha

Meet the crew, as the boss man Branson gets to call himself 'Astronaut 001'

Its been live streamed 2pm Sunday

https://twitter.com/virgingalactic/status/1410727434530422784

Branson sez "And when we return, I will announce something very exciting, to give more people a chance to become astronauts"
That will probably be him releasing the price list to go to space, $200k+ a skull

Church on Tuesday

Gregor Samsa

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Those are very unsexy. No wonder he is going to be beaten by Branson.

Set phasers to STUNNING!




https://www.amazon.com/Smiffys-Fever-Space-Cadet-Costume/dp/B0096ORDA6/ref=sr_1_30?dchild=1&keywords=space+costume&qid=1625505395&sr=8-30

JupiterKid

Of course, those space outfits could never be as sexy as these.....

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

Capt'n Midnight

JupiterKid wrote: »

Of course, those space outfits could never be as sexy as these.....

CMbSGBCWBSk

I see your cheese and I raise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL8AgEzg5fI

Muahahaha

Branson might get there first but Bezos is winning the PR battle of the benevolent billionaires by bringing along a woman who trained with NASA back in the 60s but never got to go to space

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1410880925693452298

Another seat on Bezos' space flight sold at auction for $28 million last week

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117570453#Comment_117570453

It would be far more beneficial if they spent it on infrastructure, like high speed rail or similar(not the hype loop)

zom

What a fascinating discussion here, one post per two weeks ;)

Capt'n Midnight

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117630960#Comment_117630960

Beneficial to whom ?

The aim of vanity sub orbital flights is to make money, or for Bezos who doesn't need more money, better PR because his BE-4 engine has been delayed yet again and it's affecting billions of free money from NASA.

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117636652#Comment_117636652

beneficial to the 99.99% who live in the real world.

briany

I can think of quite a few positives of Jeff Bezos being blasted into space. Even more if he stayed up there.

Ger Roe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CvURidpkCY&list=PL7pbUEFLzC1HybfREKqbwA25CP_l3bTm5&index=9

The best space uniforms ever .... Gerry Anderson's 1970's live action series UFO. It was his first non puppet series after Thunderbirds, Joe 90, Captain Scarlet etc, and it was based in the far flung future of 1980. Sylvia Anderson was the designer of all the Century 21 fashion costumes.

Muahahaha

Live feed here T minus 2 minutes to launch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERLTF1xV-dY

Muahahaha

Right, Im turning off. Its a useless tv production, all they have is two cameras and neither are inside the space capsule itself. No live commentary either

Capt'n Midnight

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117637025#Comment_117637025

Why would billionaires contribute to society ? They only got a little over 50% richer during the pandemic. Previously used windfall taxes at income tax rates would have tapped into this unearned wealth to ease the pressure on the rest of us.

Politicians missed that window. Month after month.

HoliyMoliy

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117637058#Comment_117637058

😂

JupiterKid

Well, Bezos and his crew - including the oldest person in space Wally Funk, 82 (and this time it truly WAS in outer space, well above the 62 mile (100 km) Von Karman line) and the youngest, a Dutch lad of 18 - safely touched down back on Earth.

I was really pleased that Wally Funk finally got to experience the view of Earth and a few minutes of weightlessness.

Elon Musk is the remaining billionaire space entrepreneur yet to travel into space - apparently, he's bought a ticket for one of Branson's Virgin Galactic flights.

Article here:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57849364

Effects

Load of wánk.

briany

The woman on the stream said something about members of the public availing of an opportunity to go to space. It'd be funny to see a kickstarter to get the president of the Flat Earth Society up there.

silverharp

https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1417454994165534721

spicy tweet

Capt'n Midnight

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117638137#Comment_117638137

Elon Musk is the remaining billionaire space entrepreneur yet to travel into space - apparently, he's bought a ticket for one of Branson's Virgin Galactic flights.

It's old hat at this stage - take a look at how many billionaires have already been to orbit and stayed on the ISS

Musk is sending people to orbit, and to the ISS and ever for a trip around the moon.

Capt'n Midnight

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117638165#Comment_117638165

I can self identify as the president if needed.

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117597192#Comment_117597192

AKA "I shot my load in a starshow stripper" 😜

fergiesfolly

I loved the fact that these guys went to space and spent their time throwing pingpong balls and Skittles and doing somersaults.

If any one act shows up the pointless, wasteful use of resources this exercise is, it's this.

They could've let them hop around a bouncy castle for ten minutes with the same results.