Virgin Galactic, Branson's space venture

[tater]

5 minutes ago, GuessingEveryDay said:

Well, that begs the question, which country will be the next to include military operations in space? US and Russia(maybe?) are the first, who could be next?

Loads of astronauts are ex-military (pilots, generally).

[GuessingEveryDay]

10 minutes ago, tater said:

Loads of astronauts are ex-military (pilots, generally).

However which countries are preparing for military action? USA and Russia are the easy answers with spy satellites and whatnot, maybe China, but what other countries are doing the same?

[tater]

2 minutes ago, GuessingEveryDay said:

However which countries are preparing for military action? USA and Russia are the easy answers with spy satellites and whatnot, maybe China, but what other countries are doing the same?

I'm not sure how a suborbital joy ride maps to military action.

I assume they are training up some of their pilots with the thought they might move on to become ESA astronauts? Or just to say they have pilots who have been in space?

[darthgently]

9 hours ago, GuessingEveryDay said:

Well, that begs the question, which country will be the next to include military operations in space? US and Russia(maybe?) are the first, who could be next?

It could be simply that they are giving the Italian AF a great deal so VG can post a PR statement like the above and the Italian AF agreed for PR reasons also; kind of spaceforce-ish.  Who knows?

[Exoscientist]

On 5/23/2023 at 4:01 PM, tater said:

So Stratolaunch got Cosmic Girl, Rocket Lab got their shop in CA, and Launcher/Vast got the other stuff. Virgin Orbit is no more.

Who got the engines?

 

Bob Clark

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

[tater]

finally live

[tater]

They're flying their contraption again today:

 

[tater]

youtube not actually live, dropped a while ago

 

 

[magnemoe]

12 minutes ago, tater said:

youtube not actually live, dropped a while ago

 

 

Makes some sense to not have it live, say some puke,the passengers paid lot for this as its expensive. Also this was an hairy experience. Lady front left you should put snake heads on the tips on your dreads. 

[StrandedonEarth]

They flew a more secretive commercial mission yesterday. Virgin Galactic completes third commercial SpaceShipTwo flight - SpaceNews

[tater]

The day before Balloon Fiesta starts.

[StrandedonEarth]

Another flight in the books, six in six months.!

After leading NASA’s mission to Pluto, Alan Stern flies to space himself | Ars Technica

[tater]

 

Can't be good.

[StrandedonEarth]

Oh. Pity. 

E: They appear to be hunkering down and conserving funding to get the next Delta-class vehicles operational.

Virgin Galactic lays off staff as it focuses on next-generation suborbital vehicle - SpaceNews

Edited November 8, 2023 by StrandedonEarth

[RCgothic]

Richard Branson to provide no more funding for Virgin Galactic, says it has enough, alarms investors, shares plummet.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/dec/04/virgin-galactic-shares-richard-branson-funding

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by RCgothic