My Hopes are with Virgin Galactic

My Hopes are with Virgin Galactic

I’m sure many of you know about Richard Bransons current project “Virgin Galactic”. For those that don’t here is a brief summary of the project:

In 2004 Scaled Composites with their SpaceShipOne won the $10m Ansari X-Prize by being the 1st privately funded company to put a man in space. And now in 2008 Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites will be testing SpaceShipTwo, this reusable craft aims to take 6 passengers and 2 pilots into space on every trip. Currently 5 of these crafts have been ordered by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group with 2 carriers and a new spaceport is to be developed for the Virgin fleet. Virgin hopes for 1 space flight a week at the start of operations.

The reason I bring this topic up now is because after the historic launch of SpaceShipOne I was always unsure if this project was going to move forwards. However after a few months of silence a press release was given earlier this year saying that the new ships are almost ready for testing and that the 1st batch of passengers have begun training and health & safety exams.

During the flight:

- Passengers will be able to see 1000 miles in all directions
- SpaceShipTwo will go to a height of 360.000 feet.
- Flights will last approximately 2.5 hours

We have all seen the NASA STS videos of strange objects round the ISS and Shuttle and with no real information from NASA except the odd “Just Ice Crystals” comment sadly we have always had to make up our on minds about what they might be.

With Virgin taking civilians into space I can’t see them being able to ban people from talking about their experience in space and what they have seen up there. I read not long ago that you can take photos during the trip and who knows about video cameras.

No longer is this a dream this is becoming a reality. Virgin aim to have their first space tourist trip by 2009. With 1 launch a week at the start that’s almost 312 passengers a year. With those facts alone I put my hope of discloser with Virgin and the other small companies trying to make space tourism a reality.

Website:
Virgin Galactic

The government may hide the truth from the average civilian, but will the average civilian do the same?

/rich 


[edit on 6-5-2008 by olegkvasha]

I'm not really down with Branson of late. Especially after he asked the estate of his best bud and pilot Foster to shore in some mulah for his search.
Dangit. The guy is sinfully rich. What a no class meatball.

reply to post by jpm1602


I agree with you, however if you look at Virgins history and its growth this shows just how power crazy and rich he is. Im sure in the back of his mind he would love to be the "first" to show the world that life exists outside our planet, and forever be known as the man that did it. Do I think he would do it for the greater good? No! I think he would do it for the the power

/rich

[edit on 6-5-2008 by olegkvasha]

i think that it is a good thing that space travel shall be something which shall be done a loot more in a few years, i'm sure other companies beside virgin will try and do do it as well. when space travel does become a lot more common, there is a great possibility that many cases of strange sightings and the like shall arise.

reply to post by ge0rge


Here are some of the companies also trying to make space tourism a reality:

Armadillo Aerospace
Benson Dream Chaser
Bigelow Sundancer
Blue Origin Project
CSI Lunar Express
EADS Astrium
PlanetSpace
Rocketplane XP
Scaled Composites
Space Adventures
Spacefleet SF-01
SpaceX Falcon 1
SpaceX Falcon 9
Starchaser Thunderstar
Virgin Galactic
XCOR Lynx
XCOR Xerus

You can find out more about each company here:
Space Tourism

If you get time have a look, there are some interesting projects being developed, including one to make trips round the moon using a Soyuz spacecraft

/rich

Branson is the poster child for every megalomaniacs wet dream. Cage match with Oprah. I take Oprah.

My grandfather and foster were friends until my grandfather died in a plane crash in the 1980's. For Branson not to pony up any and all costs to the state, if no other reason than to keep the heat off a grieving widow, is bs to the extreme.

I have lost any and all respect for Branson and company. My grandfather was also good friends with Burt (Rutan) and I can't imagine that Burt is happy with the latest media coverage concerning the latest news about charging the widow of a lost hero for the state's search expenditures. Especially when said hero has done much to advance the cause of expereimental aircraft at the whim of folks who have FU money. Sad, very sad.

But with that being said, expect many photos of unusual things taken from near orbit from programs like this. The average person has no idea how things behave in micro gravity and direct sunlight. When things don't move or reflect light as expected from your lifelong experience of living on the surface of a planet you can imagine the wondrous things that will be photographed and pured over by folks who see what they want to see from that altitude.

See, on one hand you have the ignorant masses that claim NASA is a master of covering things up, then on the other hand you have the ignorant masses that claim this stupid tether video is proof of alien life (or whatever they need to see in said video to fortify their beliefs). You can't have it both ways. Either Nasa is good at hiding stuff like this, to the point where all we can do is argue over blurry moon photos and argue over Pareidolia images from Mars, or they are so stupid to hide everything but make stupid mistakes in doing so by releasing something that many (ignorant folk) claim is 100% proof of [insert woo woo's belief system here].

So, yes, there will be many photos taken from such a high orbit that will cause folks to loose their heads while they ignore logic, reason and common sense. Hell, I could go take photos of an ant hill in my back yard and folks around here will find a conspiracy confirming their preconceived notions in it.

That is the sad state of this hobby. If is filled with ignorance and the complete lack of common sense, logic and reason. Don't believe me? Read 90% of the threads in this very forum.


[edit on 6-5-2008 by IgnoreTheFacts]

reply to post by olegkvasha


I can tell you that the EADS company will have a clause in the contract as they are very tight with the ESA and NASA. As for the others I will do a bit of research and post my findings as to whom the deal with.

Oh yes, Nasa is so powerful as to retain the ability to control information from every private source and every other government on the planet. Including the commercial telescope I use 2-3 times a year.

They are so good at that they can do it without fail, but then they screw up by accidentally releasing images on their OWN website that ignorant conspiracy folks claim are proof they are lying? Thats what I am talking about in my previous post, you guys can't have it both ways. They are either all powerful and infallible, or as inept as ANY other government agency.

Has our desire to believe completely removed our ability to use reason, logic and common sense? And we wonder why this subject has not (and will not) ever go mainstream and get real scientists to work on it, lol.


[edit on 6-5-2008 by IgnoreTheFacts]

Bravo Ignore. Space exploration and truth to outer terrestial phenom will advance sans Nasa and bs.
RIP most fearless adventurer Mr. Foster.
Wherever you are.
Ground control to Major Tom....
May God's love be with you....

[edit on 5/6/2008 by jpm1602]

[edit on 5/6/2008 by jpm1602]

[edit on 5/6/2008 by jpm1602]

I just finished watching the 10 min movie and I’m impressed….
So my big question is how’s the government meant to prevent us from seeing those NASA tether objects once we (the public) get into space?

www.virgingalactic.com...

reply to post by andre18


To be honest they can't prevent it. Unless some new law takes place banning space tourism. I don't know if NASA and our government are lying about the existents of alien life. However with so many programs to take tourists into space, some starting as early as 2009 maybe the truth will come out, we may find that NASA really doesn’t keep much back from us. Who knows but I think it wont be long till we find out though.

/rich