Virgin Galactic Unveils Spaceship

[NoBorders]

Source: AP

Within a few years, a handful of rich tourists may be blasting into space in a craft that looks a little like a cross between the space shuttle and a corporate jet.


British billionaire Richard Branson and the aerospace designer Burt Rutan unveiled a model Wednesday of SpaceShipTwo, the vehicle they hope will be able to take passengers on suborbital joy rides, sheerly for the fun of it, with test flights beginning as soon as this year.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/23/financial/f144842S60.DTL&feed=rss.business

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Woo Hoo! Sign me up. Well, after I win the lottery anyway.

[LiberalEsto]

1. Good way to get rid of the rich

Ship them off into space.
Buh-bye!

:hi:

[LiberalFighter]

4. I rather get rid of the religous nut cases

Tell them they need to be orbiting around the sun for the second coming to occur.

[AndyTiedye]

7. Give Them Disaster Area's Sundive Ship!

[Turbineguy]

9. !

[Rebellious Republican]

17. I believe its a referance to " A hitchhikers guide to the Universe"

My nephew could explain it better, I think he has worn out several copies.

:smoke:

[Rebellious Republican]

18. I meant to attach this to Turbineguys post #9. N/T

[AndyTiedye]

20. I Think Turbineguy Recognized the Reference

since the image he posted is also from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[Rebellious Republican]

22. I thought that was a question mark, did not see it was an exclamation point.

:think: :toast:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

21. Trouble is, they'll keep the dirty part of their business here with us...

So we can continue to live in an increasingly uninhabitable atmosphere while they make plans to fuck up some other place after we're gone.

[DemCam]

2. Gotta love Richard Branson

[walnutpie]

10. What's the carbon footprint

of space tourisim?

[Hugabear]

13. Probably still smaller than David Beckham's

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/7712508

<snip>
According to Soccer America daily, with reference to data provided by the British environmental group Carbon Trust, the Los Angeles Galaxy superstar is responsible for 163 tons of carbon dioxide yearly — compare that to the normal 9.4 tons the average Englishman produces.

Beckham's Carbon Footprint — a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide — may be the largest in human history.
<snip>

[walnutpie]

19. Um, BFD

First, I don't patronize fox sports

Second, if we are going to get serious about saving the planet, we cannot go inventing high carbon impact leisure activities.

This sort of thing needs to be stopped before it becomes acceptable. Imagine the impact this will start to have once it becomes more afordable.

[Phred42]

3. Sad - how about feeding a few hundred thousand in Darfur

Or sinking that money into solving the alternate energy problem

Rather than be a toy maker for the Plutocrats

[Hugabear]

6. Honestly, we need to start expanding off this planet

We're so cramped on this planet, and I don't see things getting any better. We really do need to start seriously working on orbiting space colonies, colonizing the Moon and Mars.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. What's this got to do with expanding off this planet?

It's a really high plane ride.

:shrug:

[Hugabear]

12. It's a start

This will be the first time that we've had a reusable spacecraft, so that's a step in the right direction.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. Err, we've had reusable spacecraft since the seventies.

And it's pretty clear that reusable spacecraft are miserable failures.

This is as much about expanding away from the earth as hot air ballooning.

[Hugabear]

15. Not really

Yes, we've had the space shuttle, but that requires booster rockets that have to be replaced every time. This new craft is launched from underneath another larger ship at a high altitude.

[Mythsaje]

23. For one, it gets people interested in the space program again.

For two, it brings private enterprise more firmly into the operation. And free enterprise IS going to be a necessity for further exploration and exploitation.

[sofa king]

16. If you're going to solve the alt. energy problem...

...You're going to have to be an expert in using the very lightest weight materials for everything, while still ensuring a reliable margin of strength and safety. That's because no alternative fuel will ever give the bang for the buck that petroleum products give, so everything in the future is going to be underpowered by comparison to today.

So in the future, how, precisely, is one going to get all that food to a few hundred thousand people in Darfur in time to keep them from starving? With super lightweight cargo aircraft which maximize cargo capacity by utilizing strong, lightweight materials and specialized construction so that they can limp along on recycled poop, or whatever.

Now, who's actually working on such a solution? Hmmm?

[Trajan]

5. ...

[ret5hd]

8. I think it will end up like this one: