Is Virgin Galactic for Real?

Should Richard Branson be taken seriously? It takes giant rocket
boosters to get the space shuttle into space. So he's going to put his
shuttle ontop of jet and launch it from there? And New Mexico is going to
build a spaceport?

What's this going to cost? How long will they be in orbit? And would
you pay that fee to go just a few thousand miles into space?

How about this: What will happen first? Virgin Galactic taking
customers into space or the U.S. returning to the Moon?

Oh, and of course their first craft (whenever they finish it) will be
called Enterprise. Ugh, give me a break.

"Von Fourche" wrote in message
news

Should Richard Branson be taken seriously? It takes giant rocket
boosters to get the space shuttle into space. So he's going to put his
shuttle ontop of jet and launch it from there? And New Mexico is going to
build a spaceport?

What's this going to cost? How long will they be in orbit? And would
you pay that fee to go just a few thousand miles into space?

How about this: What will happen first? Virgin Galactic taking
customers into space or the U.S. returning to the Moon?

Oh, and of course their first craft (whenever they finish it) will be
called Enterprise. Ugh, give me a break.



Forgot the link: http://www.virgingalactic.com/en/like.asp

Von Fourche wrote:
Should Richard Branson be taken seriously? It takes giant rocket
boosters to get the space shuttle into space. So he's going to put his
shuttle ontop of jet and launch it from there? And New Mexico is going to
build a spaceport?

What's this going to cost? How long will they be in orbit? And would
you pay that fee to go just a few thousand miles into space?

How about this: What will happen first? Virgin Galactic taking
customers into space or the U.S. returning to the Moon?

Well, based on the sound'n'fury vs. results from the private spaceflight
industry, I'd actually put money on the U.S. returning to Luna.


Oh, and of course their first craft (whenever they finish it) will be
called Enterprise. Ugh, give me a break.

Hell, the first clue for me was the company name. "Galactic", my ass;
he's only going to LEO, not even to Luna. P'wah. What kind of
truth-in-labeling laws do they have in the UK?

Still, I'd be more inclined to take Branson a _bit_ more seriously than
that outfit that allowed goldenpalace.com to plaster their URL all over
one of the X-Prize contenders' craft.

--

..

"Though I could not caution all, I yet may warn a few:
Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools!"

--grateful dead.
__________________________________________________ _____________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
"Mikey'zine": dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org

"mike flugennock" wrote in message
ervers.com...
Von Fourche wrote:
Should Richard Branson be taken seriously? It takes giant rocket
boosters to get the space shuttle into space. So he's going to put his
shuttle ontop of jet and launch it from there? And New Mexico is going
to build a spaceport?

What's this going to cost? How long will they be in orbit? And
would you pay that fee to go just a few thousand miles into space?

How about this: What will happen first? Virgin Galactic taking
customers into space or the U.S. returning to the Moon?

Well, based on the sound'n'fury vs. results from the private spaceflight
industry, I'd actually put money on the U.S. returning to Luna.


Oh, and of course their first craft (whenever they finish it) will be
called Enterprise. Ugh, give me a break.

Hell, the first clue for me was the company name. "Galactic", my ass; he's
only going to LEO, not even to Luna. P'wah. What kind of truth-in-labeling
laws do they have in the UK?

Still, I'd be more inclined to take Branson a _bit_ more seriously than
that outfit that allowed goldenpalace.com to plaster their URL all over
one of the X-Prize contenders' craft.



The cost will be two hundred thousand according to their website.

In article rs.com,
mike flugennock wrote:

Von Fourche wrote:
Should Richard Branson be taken seriously? It takes giant rocket
boosters to get the space shuttle into space. So he's going to put his
shuttle ontop of jet and launch it from there? And New Mexico is going to
build a spaceport?

What's this going to cost? How long will they be in orbit? And would
you pay that fee to go just a few thousand miles into space?

How about this: What will happen first? Virgin Galactic taking
customers into space or the U.S. returning to the Moon?

Well, based on the sound'n'fury vs. results from the private spaceflight
industry, I'd actually put money on the U.S. returning to Luna.

I will wager either of you US$500 that a Virgin Galactic crew reaches
space (that is, an altitude greater than 100 km) before NASA sends
anyone else to the Moon.

I will also wager either of you US$100 that NASA will never send anyone
to the Moon on vehicles owned and operated by NASA.

"richard schumacher" wrote in message
...
In article rs.com,
mike flugennock wrote:

I will wager either of you US$500 that a Virgin Galactic crew reaches
space (that is, an altitude greater than 100 km) before NASA sends
anyone else to the Moon.

I will also wager either of you US$100 that NASA will never send anyone
to the Moon on vehicles owned and operated by NASA.


That was my question. Not who will reach the moon first - Galactic or
NASA. But what will happen first - Virgin Galactic sending tourists into
space or NASA getting back to the Moon.

I'm confused about this "Space" and "orbit" stuff. I thought Virgin
Galactic was going to send people up like real astronauts and circle the
globe or whatever.

In article . net,
"Von Fourche" wrote:


I will wager either of you US$500 that a Virgin Galactic crew reaches
space (that is, an altitude greater than 100 km) before NASA sends
anyone else to the Moon.

I will also wager either of you US$100 that NASA will never send anyone
to the Moon on vehicles owned and operated by NASA.


That was my question. Not who will reach the moon first - Galactic or
NASA. But what will happen first - Virgin Galactic sending tourists into
space or NASA getting back to the Moon.

Almost certainly Virgin Galactic into space will be first. Remember,
it's just a somewhat larger version of the same craft that made the same
trip a year ago.



I'm confused about this "Space" and "orbit" stuff. I thought Virgin
Galactic was going to send people up like real astronauts and circle the
globe or whatever.

"Space" = more than 100 kilometers up.
"orbit" = circle the globe, more or less

VG's first step is to send people on very short sub-orbital flights:
into space but almost straight up and down, not completely around the
Earth.

In article rs.com,
mike flugennock wrote:
Hell, the first clue for me was the company name. "Galactic", my ass;
he's only going to LEO, not even to Luna.

Depends on what timescale you're talking about. I'm sure he's interested
in going beyond LEO, when it becomes practical.

P'wah. What kind of truth-in-labeling laws do they have in the UK?

None that apply to company names, any more than in the US. (How many
generals were involved in setting up General Electric? :-))

Still, I'd be more inclined to take Branson a _bit_ more seriously than
that outfit that allowed goldenpalace.com to plaster their URL all over
one of the X-Prize contenders' craft.

Tsk tsk, you mean "one of the *Ansari* X-Prize contenders' craft". He
who puts up the cash gets to put his name on the thing if he wants.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |

On Wed, 4 Jan 2006 14:47:09 GMT, (Henry Spencer)
wrote:

None that apply to company names, any more than in the US. (How many
generals were involved in setting up General Electric? :-))

....Well, there *was* General Sarnoff, Henry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sarnoff

OM
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] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

In article ,
says...
On Wed, 4 Jan 2006 14:47:09 GMT, (Henry Spencer)
wrote:

None that apply to company names, any more than in the US. (How many
generals were involved in setting up General Electric? :-))

...Well, there *was* General Sarnoff, Henry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sarnoff

General Electric? Or Radio Corporation of America?

(The fact that both GE and RCA are just labels owned by a French company
isn't relevant.)
--
Kevin Willoughby lid

In this country, we produce more students with university degrees
in sports management than we do in engineering. - Dean Kamen