Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceship ignites engine in flight.

After a long silence, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has moved a stage further to it's first commercial space flight, after igniting it's engine for the first time, and flying to mach 1.2 with a glide back to a landing at Mojave Air and Spaceport.

Anyone here who has paid $200,000 for a ticket to fly? As it looks like the first flight is not that far away and tickets might be in short supply soon.

www.bbc.co.uk...

$200,000 to go to space, or is that in £'s. Still not bad though, will book one later
Only kidding but I wonder how long til this is as affordable as a hot air balloon trip.

bad title thought engine caught on fire, not things went according to plan

Originally posted by thegoods724
bad title thought engine caught on fire, not things went according to plan

Think the title would have been more dramatic if that had been the case.

Strange fuel though, solid rubber, I thought "Flubber". Haha.

We now have a mini "space race", UK v USA, well I have to big up the UK, as at the mo, we do not have much to cheer about.

Originally posted by thegoods724
bad title thought engine caught on fire, not things went according to plan

You just read it wrong, buddy.

OP, I'd love to go, but I don't have the money and if I had the money, well then I wouldn't go anyway because I'd rather not risk dying when I'm loaded - Maybe when I'm 70, or if it was a near certainty that I'd survive then yeah, I may consider it.

reply to post by n00bUK



If some ATS member has the money for the tickets, but is too afraid to go --- I will gladly do it!

Originally posted by ThinkingCap
reply to post by n00bUK

 

If some ATS member has the money for the tickets, but is too afraid to go --- I will gladly do it!

Fight you for them, pistols at dawn! Haha.

Farah Fawset (OK I don't know how to spell her name, but I guess everyone will know who I mean.) has brought a ticket. Now that would be a flight worth waiting for!

Im just glad i got my ticket. I just need my gold spandex suit now and im rockin and a rollin

You might want to edit the title, it makes it look like the engine caught fire during the flight.

This isn't the case, it was a successful testing of the rocket engine.

I guess "technically" it's considered going into space

For me personally, I would want to be in a stable orbit for a little while instead of basically jumping up and "touching" space and then landing.

Don't get me wrong, it's still cool and all -- but it seems a bit gimicky.

I mean, even Daniel Tosh can put an popsicle on a weather balloon and claim it went into "space"

And I don't get why it's taking so long. If I had his kind of money I'd have at least twice the people working 24-7 on the project. If you throw enough money at something, miracles happen.

They will NOT let civilians go into space.
remember concord !
they fix the fault then scrap it???

Originally posted by babybunnies
You might want to edit the title, it makes it look like the engine caught fire during the flight.

This isn't the case, it was a successful testing of the rocket engine.

Do wot?

Makes it look like the engine caught fire???????

I despair.

reply to post by buddha


Then there's that.

If "they" are hiding stuff in space (aliens or advanced tech of our own) they won't be able to keep it a secret with private space ventures.

This either means disclosure on what is really up there is at hand -- or there really isn't anything secret going on after all.

Originally posted by MystikMushroom
I guess "technically" it's considered going into space

For me personally, I would want to be in a stable orbit for a little while instead of basically jumping up and "touching" space and then landing.

Don't get me wrong, it's still cool and all -- but it seems a bit gimicky.

edit on 29-4-2013 by MystikMushroom because: (no reason given)

I agree with MystikMushroom. Private space flight will only become exciting when there's a private space station where tourists can stay for a predetermined time and watch the earth spin under them. Some of us like three night holidays, some of us like three month holidays.

www.dailymail.co.uk... ts-track-2014.html

well they reach the stratosphere... progressing well.

"commercial space flights are 'on track' for 2014"

Manned commercial orbital flight is when we can finally call it space for the public. Reaching the upper atmosphere and achieving zero-g for a few seconds can be done in an aircraft.

reply to post by wildespace


This is longer than a few seconds though.

I think the point is that they have achieved space and that is the biggest hurdle, needing all that fuel, etc in a normal rocket to get there. Once they are in space it does not need so much effort to go anywhere but rather a point and shoot for the Moon or whatever. You have to think of training the pilots & navigators too who probably need experience of space flight.

It is like a proof of concept being done to different stages showing that the whole idea has 'legs' and will work. I assume that the finance department will need some kind of measuerment that something is actually happening and that their money is being spent wisely. There must be phases to the project and this is probably another phase completed.

I have to say that the BBC image looks more like a mock-up or photoshop glossy plastic image. With that rocket jet out the back it all looks too Buck Rogers to me.

reply to post by qmantoo

Once they are in space it does not need so much effort to go anywhere but rather a point and shoot for the Moon or whatever.

Not true, as you still have to contend with the Earth's gravity. You can shoot a rocket straight up to the altitude commonly considered space (100 km or 62 miles above sea level), but if it doesn't achieve orbital velocity it will fall back to earth. Sir Richard Branson's SpaceShipTwo is only designed to reach 4,200 km/h (2,600 mph), to perform sub-orbital flights. Achieving low-earth orbit requires a minimum velocity of 28,100 km/h (17,500 mph). The rocket, once it leaves the atmosphere, spends a considerable portion of the launch flying horizontally accelerating to that velocity. To achieve a higher orbit, you need to burn more fuel to achieve higher velocity. In order to reach the Moon, you need to achive escape velocity, which for Earth is 11.2 km/s (40,320 km/h or 25,000 mph).

So space flight is not something as simple as just getting there.