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Virgin Galactic, Branson's space venture

PB666

By PB666
in Science & Spaceflight

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tater

tater

Posted
Posted
23 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

To be fair, there are far worse ways to spend that much money (but definitely a lot of better ways) and Spaceport America was supposed to have had a lot more business by now. This is mostly due to the tenants and not the spaceport itself.

At one point, among others, SpaceX was going to do landing testing there.

Like Hopper testing, yes. In short, suborbital flights that can never leave the footprint of the missile range.

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tater

tater

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Cheif Operations Director said:

Right, could be planes as well with orbital satellite launchers attached but I think those are going out of favor if I remember correctly.

Even those I think are suspect, anything with a decent chance of raining, well, anything on inhabited areas.

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mikegarrison

mikegarrison

Posted
Posted (edited)

Basically, Spaceport America was supposed to be the home of the popular and successful space tourism business of Virgin Galactic.

Well, we know how that has turned out so far.

It was designed back during the big excitement when SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X prize. That was 15 years ago now! People assumed that it would not take 15 years to start commercial suborbital space tourism.

Edited by mikegarrison
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Cheif Operations Director

Cheif Operations Director

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, mikegarrison said:

Basically, Spaceport America was supposed to be the home of the popular and successful space tourism business of Virgin Galactic.

Well, we know how that has turned out so far.

It was designed back during the big excitement when SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X prize. That was 15 years ago now! People assumed that it would take nearly 15 years to start commercial suborbital space tourism.

Sounds like SpaceX’s estimates for the falcon heavy

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mikegarrison

mikegarrison

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, tater said:

To be fair, I think I can just drive down there and visit. It was built with my tax dollars, I'd raise a stink if they didn't let me in.

Reminds me of when Homer Simpson told the cops that his tax dollars pay their salaries. As they throw him in jail, they say, "Look what else your tax dollars pay for...."

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tater

tater

Posted
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2 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

Reminds me of when Homer Simpson told the cops that his tax dollars pay their salaries. As they throw him in jail, they say, "Look what else your tax dollars pay for...."

None the less, it's a nominally public facility, I'm allowed in the airport, and train station, for example.

I checked and walk-ins are accommodated short of operational issues (there are sounding rocket launches, etc, that close the roads).

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Nightside

Nightside

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, tater said:

None the less, it's a nominally public facility, I'm allowed in the airport, and train station, for example.

I checked and walk-ins are accommodated short of operational issues (there are sounding rocket launches, etc, that close the roads).

its probably easier to get into than a normal airport.

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  • 1 month later...
Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

Posted
Posted

Any updates on scheduling for both suborbital space tourism companies? We seem long overdue for another SS2 flight (albeit they are relocating), the last being 7 months ago, and similarly overdue for another NS flight, the last being four months ago. I believe BO recently said that they still want to fly people this year, but I also heard that means at least 3 more flights in 3.5 months...

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Nightside

Nightside

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Any updates on scheduling for both suborbital space tourism companies? We seem long overdue for another SS2 flight (albeit they are relocating), the last being 7 months ago, and similarly overdue for another NS flight, the last being four months ago. I believe BO recently said that they still want to fly people this year, but I also heard that means at least 3 more flights in 3.5 months...

Has anyone ever even said they've even a ticket? Do customers sign an NDA?

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tater

tater

Posted
Posted

I think this particular flight model for suborbital would be well served by aiming for a real airworthiness rating, vs the level of risk it actually is. NS at least has abort modes that make sense to me. I can't imagine spending 250k on a few minute ride, but if I was going to, I think BO's offering seems safer, honestly.

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tater

tater

Posted
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43 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

You know how Blue Origin works. They could have half the world signed up and they wouldn't tell anyone about it until after they actually flew them.

LOL, true.

That said, they have yet to announce a price.

 

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Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

Posted
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1 hour ago, mikegarrison said:

You know how Blue Origin works. They could have half the world signed up and they wouldn't tell anyone about it until after they actually flew them.

I can disprove that. If half of the world was signed up, I would definitely be in that half! I'm in the richest half, the half most fascinated by space, likely the strongest half, and probably a few other noteworthy halves.

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  • 3 weeks later...
tater

tater

Posted
Posted

Sounds like it.

HTHL certainly looks more like extant infrastructure, and any noise issues, etc would be better served by flying away from an airport, then launching...

The travel times would still be superior to current air travel, though climb out to launch might be longer than the suborbital trip could last.

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