Stratolaunch Out Of Launch Vehicle Business
In article , says...
All very reasonable IMHO, I totally agree. All very good points.
I'd also like to see a comparison in development costs between Blue
Origin and Virgin Galactic for a sub-orbital hopper excursion vehicle.
My guess is that Blue Origin spent a lot more developing their
suborbital VTVL than Virgin Galactic has spent on SS1 and SS2. Jeff
Bezos has reportedly been giving Blue Origin $1 billion a year in
funding (a drop in the bucket for his Amazon fortune). Richard Branson,
by comparison, has been a lot more stingy with SS2 funding, IMHO. It's
been how many years since SS1 flew and SS2 still isn't flying with
paying customers on board.
I don't see a viable path for VG to orbit. So it will be a niche vehicle
and if Blue Origin can subsidize hopper flights using profits from
orbital trips, probably also a dead end.
SS2 certainly appears to be a technological dead end. It's an elegant
point design that unfortunately doesn't scale to anything faster and
higher.
Jeff
p.s. I know I shouldn't post at 6:10 a.m., but YOLO.
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