Virgin Galactic commercial

LOS ANGELES – After five years of secret construction, the cloak is coming off a privately funded spacecraft designed to fly well-heeled tourists into space. The long-awaited glimpse of SpaceShipTwo, slated for rollout Monday in the Mojave Desert, could not come sooner for the scores of wannabe astronauts who have forked over part of their disposable income for the chance to float in zero gravity.

If you had the money and the means, would you want to go? Personally, I dont like flying, but I think I could get over it.

How long do you think it will be before this is just a "standard" type of thing?
We would need another fuel source that isnt so expensive, but......
Just 50 or so years ago, flying in an airplane was a luxury that almost no one could afford. Now you rarely meet someone who has never been on a plane.
Thoughts?
Source Article

I've been following this since it's announcement, even though the $200,000 ticket price is slightly out of my league. This will become "the norm" and prices will fall just like everything else, like you said; airplanes.

The second building on the moon will be a hotel and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Branson heads up a consortium and buys the ISS...

The future of space travel and technology lies in the commercial sector.

Would be great wouldn't it, even if it's only eight minutes?

Sendran.

Ive been following it too.
Branson buying the ISS makes me think about "Contact" by carl sagan.
The rich have a resort-like station in orbit, where you can go to slow the process of disease, etc.

I guess its just a really interesting time we live in. In my lifetime, I have went from records and cassettes, to ipod music players.
From Atari, to Xbox, to Playstation portable. Computers took up whole rooms the year I was born, now they fit in your knapsack.

I would definitely take the trip to the moon.

I watched the X Prize run that started all of this. It was a remarkable flight and very inspiring. It seems like so long ago since it happened. I would never pay that much money for what is essentially the world's largest roller coaster, but I am glad to see it happening. Now if only Bigelow Aerospace would get somewhere with their inflatable space stations, things would really seem like they are progressing.

If I won a few million quid on the Euro-millions lottery, I would definitely fork out £125k on that. It would be worth it for sure!

It seems to me that you'd need to be a millionare to pay for it.

That means your probably already being watched or already an elite.

If not, what if this was your ticket into the club, go up there, see and alien, and get told now your with us or your dead.

lol just kidding, but this will be out of reach for 99.5% of people...

This isnt going to work out well.

Its just to dangereous. And with that i dont mean the technology they use and all, but i mean the "others" that are in space and on the moon.

Sooner or later someone will stop this Virgin Galactic from going into space. And if someone from Eart doesnt do thaht, someone from somewhere else will, for those people's own safety

I used to fly a combat flight Sim IL2 sturmovik (Blitzpigs) with one of the engineers of the original prototype long before it started making news.

From the stories he told me, the guys behind the project were/are a great bunch and I am glad their design is about to go stratospheric.

Salute "Groucho"

The thing that gets me, is how would they keep anything secret if someone saw something up there?

Thats what i think holds this back so long, how will they stop people seeing things up there, they might not want the people to see.

reply to post by TheNetherlands


That was creepy i was just thinking about "V" and she appears lol
great avatar, loved the scene where she stripped, reptilian or not she's hot... *cough* anyways

My personal opinion is that this will be like airplanes, eventually ticket prices would drop dramatically say to around the £3000 mark. Perhaps eventually into the hundreds.
Interesting times we live in looking forward to the future..

and if i won the euro lottery i'd definately buy a ticket for this.

just imagine if you saw a alien spacecraft or maybe it turns out our orbit is packed with space stations and craft that are edited out using photoshop or stock footage on the "live" launches

reply to post by andy1033


You make a great point and I think the only way would be through a strong vetting procedure followed by a none disclosure agreement under the grounds of protecting technology.

However in the small print would be none disclosure inclusions for things that could be “mistaken” for UFO’s by paying pasengers but is explained away by the virgin crew as being human secret technology - but is in reality a non-human UFO.

To back that up are thinly veiled threats of Chinese wrist burns and spanked inner thighs – or death to self and loved ones.

reply to post by TheNetherlands


Maybe, just maybe there is not actually anybody else up there.
Nobody will stop this from happening, its a good thing i think. The first steps to colonising off world can really only come from the private sector, one day i would like to think i could scrounge up enough sheckles for a trip.

Interestingly last night the bbc replayed James May's trip to the edge of space in a U2 spy plane, thats the second time i saw that and afterwards he comments "If every person in the world could do that just once, how different things would be" or something along those lines.

Originally posted by nik1halo
If I won a few million quid on the Euro-millions lottery, I would definitely fork out £125k on that. It would be worth it for sure!

Just think of all those bankers with their bonus's. Pocket change for them not to mention football players. space will soon become a playground for the rich

The SS2 looks pretty freaking sweet

i'll just contribute a vid for those people who are too lazy to search for one on youtube



BTW, i'm going up there ... when XCOR, Armadillo Aerospace and the others will start competing with Virgin, prices are bound to drop and that's when i'll go.

[edit on 12.7.09 by toreishi]

I was waiting for some conspiracy to show up! I was hoping I didnt make this thread for nothing.

I fully believe in extraterrestrial life, the drake equation..etc. But I dont think there is anyone else "up there" per se. At least not that close. But I guess we would know if perhaps, the first mission goes kahblewy for no apparent reason.
I can already hear the false reports and hoaxes, from passengers. But maybe someone would get something concrete. Wouldnt that be cool? No security personal to shut you up!


Space will be a playground for the rich, but only for a while. it would soon become standard. Much like airlines.

reply to post by toreishi


I was going to mention company price competition, slipped my mind. Good point.

If it gets down to 10-20k. I will go.

[Edit: What an awesome video!!!!]

[edit on 7-12-2009 by InertiaZero]

If someone did see a UFO on one of those flights the headline would go something like this whether true or not:

Millionaire Banking Industry Giant now being investigated for adultery and banking fraud, now claims to see UFO's.

Thus destroying credibility and setting an example for future passengers.

[edit on 7-12-2009 by drift393]

Space.com has given somewhat negative press to the project. The whole story is here: Space Tourism; Reality or Mirage

At a basic level, Launius pointed out, tourism at any time and place in human history has required a trio of major components:
A discretionary income available for leisure travel;
Ample leisure time to spend on both preparations for and taking the trips themselves; and
An infrastructure supporting tourism that offers accommodations, food and amenities, transportation systems, and attractions to see and do at the place visited.

Soo... Since it's not traditional, it wont be appealing? Put a snack bar on the thing? Beer coolers? T-shirts and Hoddie shirts? Maybe a live band?
Its not that kind of tourism, dude!

Wait a sec...first band in space...that would be AWESOME. Zero gravity rocking!
Im off topic...

"It may well remain the province of wealthy thrill-seekers, essentially the same class of those who climb Mount Everest, rather than the masses who dominate the current $600 billion-plus per year tourism industry."

We have already touched on this. Of course, yuppy-scum will get to it first. I will only be upset about this if Paris Hilton and her stupid dog gets to go before I do.

A privately funded space program is a really good thing. As like everything else, the price of space tourism will lower and doors will open to the general public and eventually (like TWA back in the day) competitors will start this up and space travel will move into the private sector.

------------------------

On another note, Richard Branson is a thrill seeker. His ego is bigger than his pocket book. In most cases this is a bad thing but in this particular case we might see him going above and beyond to stroke it. His Ego might lead to Virgin doing great things with their space program like eventually putting a man on mars or better yet, dump billions into anti gravity research.

He always has to be the biggest baddest best out there.

[edit on 8-12-2009 by DaMod]

[edit on 8-12-2009 by DaMod]