Private Spaceship Could Start Carrying Tourists Within a Year (http://www.space.com/news/virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-first-space-tourists-101130.html)

http://i.space.com/images/091207-branson-01.jpg

NEW YORK — Virgin Galactic's new commercial spaceship could be flying its first passengers — company founder Sir Richard Branson and his family — in about a year, Branson said today (Nov. 30) on NBC's "Today" show.
Great. Just in time for the end of the world.

You'll have a great seat to watch from however! ;)

It is the beginning of what promises to be a very interesting period in human history. This is going to be fun. :)

Can wait to be filthy rich, for $20000 I would rather a world tour then 10 minutes of free fall. My bet is they go bankrupt in the first year or two. Its just a glorified amusement ride.

Give me an orbital ride so that I can spend hours looking down on good old terra firma and play zero g games.

It's just his rich mans toy...I doubt he expects it to be financially viable..

Some people with money to burn, will go for a ride...Then it will become an attraction, like Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose.

The ship does not even have a RCS (reactive control system). I would be pissed if it went into a spin and did not even get the joy of zero g...

The ship does not even have a RCS (reactive control system). I would be pissed if it went into a spin and did not even get the joy of zero g...


I don't know about you, but I'll never find out...I don't have that kind of money laying around...And if I did, I could think of a lot better things to do with it..Right here on the ground.:cool:

I don't think it will happen. Something unfortunate will happen to derail the company. Space is the exclusive domain of nation states, it is not for private individuals. There are things out there that the governments of the world are not ready for the populations of the world to know. If they wanted people to know the truth, they would have told them by now.

I don't think it will happen. Something unfortunate will happen to derail the company. Space is the exclusive domain of nation states, it is not for private individuals. There are things out there that the governments of the world are not ready for the populations of the world to know. If they wanted people to know the truth, they would have told them by now.


Maybe so...But, if anyone can pull this off, even if it means only one flight, it's Branson.

Space is the exclusive domain of nation states, it is not for private individuals.They said that about everything at one time or another. Remember when the president of IBM said the total world market for computers would be about fifty?
There are things out there that the governments of the world are not ready for the populations of the world to know. If they wanted people to know the truth, they would have told them by now.And what else did you read in the National Inquirer this morning?

There are things out there that the governments of the world are not ready for the populations of the world to know.

I assure you there aren't.

And what else did you read in the National Inquirer this morning?
. . . You know, you may have a point here. Upon further reflection, the people that would have enough $$$ to buy a ticket to ride on this thing? They ARE the ones who run the world, buy the politicians, release "wikileaks," fake news, plan global events, manipulate economies, trigger wars, and so on and so forth. In fact, they already know everything that goes on in the galaxy, so what the hell, right? :p

The National Inquirer doesn't usually do Hard News anymore. . . not since the wide spread use of the internet. People now have a reliable source of information untainted by the stench and corruption of the ruling elites. The National Inquirer mostly sticks to celebrity gossip and stories of the bazaar and cryptozoology these days. Only when a story is huge, like 9/11 or Princess Diana, do they cover political intrigue anymore.:D

I assure you there aren't.
Such an ardent and faithful believer in the dominant paradigm. I really hope you are right and your faith is never tested. ;) I'm not sure you could handle the truth. . .

Or perhaps you've already ridden into space?:scratchin:

Such an ardent and faithful believer in the dominant paradigm. I really hope you are right and your faith is never tested. ;) I'm not sure you could handle the truth. . .

Or perhaps you've already ridden into space?:scratchin:

I've worked in environments that monitor the sky, in various wavelengths. We had satellites pointing up, satellites pointing down, earth based observatories, radio telescope feeds, RADAR feeds, everything. I've met a guy that's been in space, and lived amongst pilots. Nobody seems to think they are being conspired against, as you do.

We never saw anything that the population are not ready to know, and certainly nothing was censored by the government. So your claim that somehow the 'governments of the world' are conspiring to keep some truth from the population of the world, but yet, somehow you think you have discovered this is total BS, sonny.

Or are you saying you have been into space, and met aliens? That you have first hand experience of them,.... go on, say it, I could do with a laugh.

This is another incremental step towards our getting off planet as a species, not necessarily as individuals. Big tasks get done one small step at a time, and this is going to be a huge task, well worthy of being done though, for many good reasons.

Understand this: we are still reaping the technological spin - offs from the first US space program. If we had instead spent that money on paving roads in rural Alabama or line items in the federal budget, there would be no pc's, flat screen tvs, cell phones or a bunch of the other toys we all find so amusing now.

Branson is a lot of things, one of them is practical another is innovative. He can do this, he is doing it, he will get it done. When sub - orbital flight becomes routine, he will up the ante.....and you can take that to the bank. :)

So your claim that somehow the 'governments of the world' are conspiring to keep some truth from the population of the world, but yet, somehow you think you have discovered this is total BS, sonny.Well hold on there. I have no doubt that various governments are indeed trying their best to keep "some truth" from us, and that since civilization is more-or-less neatly divided into political blocs, some alliances of governments are indeed "conspiring." The leaders of every government, no matter how democratically elected, believe that they have not just a right, but an obligation to keep certain information out of our hands "for our own good," if not (more honestly) for theirs. I just agree with you that in these days of cheap, powerful and intrusive information technology, it's not easy for them to do that on a large scale. But that doesn't mean they're not doing it on a small scale.
Understand this: we are still reaping the technological spin - offs from the first US space program.You could say that our space program is actually a spinoff of the Soviet space program. I was in high school on October 4, 1957, when Sputnik went up. Overnight, we science and math majors became heroes. The jocks held doors open for us, the pachucos stopped beating us up, there was plenty of money for laboratories, science fairs, rocket clubs and advanced-placement classes, and (most importantly of all) the girls were eager to date us. Deep down inside, many of us secretly thanked the Russians for all of this and never quite regarded them with the enmity that was stirred up in the rest of the population.

My bet is they go bankrupt in the first year or two. A leisure industry study in 2006 by Futron, based upon 2012 prices of $200k per flight seat falling to $50k by 2021, projected an annual demand of 13,000 seats by that year. I'll take a properly researched industry study over your 'grabbed out of the air' opinion any day.


Its just a glorified amusement ride.
Merlin, a company with fifty five global amusement parks, had revenues of £660 million pounds in 2008. There is money in glorified amusement rides.

Well hold on there. I have no doubt that various governments are indeed trying their best to keep "some truth" from us, ... But that doesn't mean they're not doing it on a small scale.

In the context of space flight however, ie this thread, I think 'The Esoterocist' is implying he knows the NWO/MIB are conspiring to keep 'The Truth' about space aliens from us, rather than cable communiques about being pissed off with Anti-American sentiment in Canadian sit-coms (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/12/01/wikileaks-cbc.html).

Can wait to be filthy rich, for $20000 I would rather a world tour then 10 minutes of free fall. My bet is they go bankrupt in the first year or two. Its just a glorified amusement ride.
They've already had 200 people pay $200k in advance for tickets. The exact development cost isn't known, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have already recouped it. Spaceship 1 was only $25 million to develop. Granted, this one is bigger, but they're probably also saving money by applying things that they learned from the SS1 development.

In any case, if 200 people are willing to pay that much money before it ever even flies, I suspect that plenty more will be interested - assuming none of the initial flights crash and kill a load of rich guys.

Also, from a business standpoint it's a pretty nice setup because the overhead will probably be low. If you don't have enough customers to fill it this week, just leave it in the hanger and wait for more to sign up. It won't cost you much money to leave the spaceship sitting around on the ground.