• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.
I admit to not having bothered reading the full reporting on these flights, but it appears that they popped out into "space" for a brief time and came back. What exactly did this add to the universal scientific knowledge of space travel or anything else? Surely the technical information on how to leave the atmosphere is generally known by now and scientists in the rarified field of building better rockets and re-entry systems talk to each other. NASA has been sending qualified not-really-military mission specialists on up for extended periods for years. Both of these private flights didn't match the old dog-or-chimpanzee pop-up flights of many years ago. Why should I care about this? Aside from the mammoth waste of resources.
 
I think the big difference is that these exploits are not being funded by 'tax dollars' but instead by private money.
And lets face it, if Geoff Bezos or Richard Bronson want to splash their cash on riding a controlled explosion into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, who are we to try to stop them?
Maybe there will be something gained from it in the future somehow?
Maybe the spending of private money on these shenanigans will enable further, more productive, spaceflight in the future?
 
You should care because this could be the early stages for giving the rest of us access to space. Instead of it being just reserved for a few, funded by tax money.
However after what SpaceX have done, I myself felt a bit let down by this space hopping.
 
Seeing the little iddy-biddy rockets that Bentos and Branston have put up though, and then comparing them to Muskies proposals does seem a little bit "That's not a knife" though, don't they....
 
I think the big difference is that these exploits are not being funded by 'tax dollars' but instead by private money.
And lets face it, if Geoff Bezos or Richard Bronson want to splash their cash on riding a controlled explosion into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, who are we to try to stop them?
Maybe there will be something gained from it in the future somehow?
Maybe the spending of private money on these shenanigans will enable further, more productive, spaceflight in the future?
It would be a much better business strategy to use my influence to push the gov to fund more research on manned flights, or offer a public private partnership (this may be a US thing). This all appears to be useless narcissistic nonsense - they have both evidenced in their business dealings massive lack of interest in the rest of the world.
 
But people still buy their products.

I don't use Amazon.

I was with Virgin Internet many years; I now use Dads line. (Talktalk I think)
 
To be fair, they're all closer to being an astronaut than I ever will be.
Maybe they can come up with a new descriptive term that is more fitting to anyone who is essentially just a rocket-borne traveller?
Atmosnaut?
Kármán Have-a-Go-er?
Rocket-Jockey?
Space Tourist maybe?
 
OK, so who's up for it then?

space.JPG
 
HK, I just had to fix a car piston ring, and unexpectedly very expensive.
 
My wife did the same for us, although I fear I'm not up to the physical standards.
If septuagenarian Richard Branson can do it, then there's hope for the rest of us!
I'm a decade younger than him and still enjoy competitive sport and am reasonably fit, but do have increasingly arthritic joints and blood pressure creeping up.
I would like to know what sort of assessments potential passengers on Virgin Galactic have to undergo.
 
I would like to know what sort of assessments potential passengers on Virgin Galactic have to undergo.
I rummaged around the Virgin Galactic website to see if they provide any specific health requirements. They don't. To the extent they explain anything at all they vaguely state that reservation holders will be subject to medical checks (unspecified) to determine their fitness for flight.
 
I just looked around the interwebs and I think you're right. My flabby, overweight build and weak leg joints would probably keep me off Blue Origin, but the difference in vehicle design means I'm probably fit enough to survive Virgin Galactic.
 
Diverting from an an authorised flight path is a serious matter, it could have put other aircraft at risk.
I'd have thought that whole area would have been cleared.
But yes, they're going to bash the rulebook on somebody's head, because... POWER.
 
Back
Top