All over the media at the mo.
Pushing the boundaries without the budget of NASA is always going to be dangerous. Even NASA do not always get it right as was seen earlier this week.
Condolences to all involved.
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Agree with the condolences, of course, but as point of fact it's Spaceship Two, and I put something stupid at the end of this sentence I have now redacted.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Fri 31 Oct 14 at 19:56
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www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29857182
"Suffered a serious anomaly"
Yup they don't come much more serious!
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Nobody died ! It's effectively a non story, but it was promoted to one purely on the grounds of the video !
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>> Nobody died !
One of the pilots is confirmed dead.
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I'd assumed earlier nobody could be on board such a test flight... I was wrong too.
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Whoops...different perspective !
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I guess you have to be quite young and fit to be allowed on a rocket-propelled vehicle. But even if I was, and stone rich to boot, I don't think I would pay the thick end of half a million quid to go, er, not into space but into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, never out of earth gravity, a couple of minutes of artificial weightlessness and that's your lot. Dangerous, uncomfortable, and not the real thing. For idiots and financial show-offs only.
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...never out of earth gravity...
You're never out of earth gravity in orbit either, AC. That's what keeps you (and the moon) in orbit.
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>> You're never out of earth gravity in orbit either
True enough. I suppose if you are near the solar system you are affected slightly by the gravity of all bodies in or near it.
Never mind gravity then: not even out of the atmosphere for heaven's sake, and a weightless minute or two due entirely to the downcurving path of the vehicle... a trampoline moment, weightless at the top of the bounce. Would you risk your little pink bum and spend a fortune for so little? Damned if I would.
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Weightlessness is in effect caused when the only force acting on a body is gravity and is therefore in free fall. Occupants of a spacecraft in orbit or in a sub-orbital ballistic trajectory will encounter the same effect. It's just that in the orbital spacecraft the effect will be indefinite in time.
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Yeah, yeah... 'sub-orbital ballistic trajectory' is the very phrase... but would you spend that sort of money, even if you had it to spare, just for that CGN? You'd have to be very gung-ho at least. Other things too.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 1 Nov 14 at 21:12
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Yes, of course I would. The only reason I haven't booked a seat is that I get travel sick as a passenger so unless I can drive the thing myself I'll have to give it a miss. I'm sure you understand.
Meanwhile I'll get on with the gardening.
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I'd do it in a heartbeat, if the price of a ticket was loose change to me. Wouldn't spend a sum that was significant.
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>> I'd do it in a heartbeat, if the price of a ticket was loose change to me.
Kamikaze... taking 'getting airborne' a bit too far.
I know what you mean in a way though. Branson's a bit like a character in a Robert Heinlein novel. Interesting reactionary futurist stuff.
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>> Yes, of course I would. The only reason I haven't booked a seat is that
>> I get travel sick as a passenger
Excellent, I had this fear you would be in the seat behind me. I'll book mine now.
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It seems to be a bit expensive considering the routes and the choice of destinations, also the travel insurance might be a little difficult to organise
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 2 Nov 14 at 08:22
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>> also the travel insurance might be a little difficult to organise
It certainly just got a lot more expensive....
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Its not really space travel is it. Even so developing such reusable space transport is horrifically expensive, not to mention risky. So expensive and risky there is no way it can be developed safely and reliably solely from passenger revenues (no matter how expensive a ticket)
Its a dead albatross.
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>> Its a dead albatross.
I wouldn't risk it either. But I have to say that Richard Branson shows vision, of a science-fiction sort, by trying to get development of these reusable technologies going on a purely commercial basis.
He isn't doing it for the money, indeed he is spending millions of his own dosh to get the thing moving. He won't be going hungry whatever happens. And he's doing stuff which is a hell of a lot more interesting than most capitalists' hobbies seem to be (racehorses, ghastly golf and so on).
And in the end, ten or twenty years down the line, something may come of it after all. Two cheers for the hustling bearded knight.
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>> the thick end of half a million quid
Oh dear. A relative snip at £155,000 I find. Even with extra charges for breakfast, champagne and a cushion it won't be as much as I thought.
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>> Nobody died ! It's effectively a non story, but it was promoted to one purely on the grounds of the video !
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Just reading Tom Bower's book on Branson.
Three engineers died when an earlier engine was under test and went bang.
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Spaceship One Down - Crankcase
