Virgin Galactic - First full crew space flight with Branson on-board
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Bezos is leaving the atmosphere is the main difference I believe
I still don't get why their billing this as going to space? He didn't pass the Karman line. I know the US defines it differently but that only changed a decade and half and was to basically give more people their astronaut wings. The entire world uses the Karman line otherwise.
It's def cool and a awesome achievement but it's not for anybody that's not a millionaire. doesn't have much value and has environmental issues. Space X and Blue Origin seem far more useful to doing things in space.
Just screams vanity
It's def cool and a awesome achievement but it's not for anybody that's not a millionaire. doesn't have much value and has environmental issues. Space X and Blue Origin seem far more useful to doing things in space.
Just screams vanity
Not with this craft.
SpaceX is launching an orbital space tourism mission later this year.
It's the same type of weightlessness in the vomit comet and in the ISS, if you are in freefall you will experience weightlessness, and objects in orbit are in free fall.
Ah shit, I had no idea. I thought this took them higher than that.
Ok well ignore my previous post.
That Blue Origin tweet doesn't mention length of flight though, so I assume it's a similar up then down quickly. At least they can pass that arbitrary 100km line. (Also, to me, getting to say you rode a rocket is inherently cooler, ha)
couldn't agree more, and this is the problem I have with it lol
bezos' flight next week is also vanity, but at least blue origin has an eventual plan to go to orbit and a clear path there (in that they're already working on larger rockets). spacex is already putting people onto the iss. virgin's concept just... does this. this is all it is. this is, probably, all it will ever be.
even if you eventually want to do real space tourism (space hotels, orbit, what have you), nothing about this helps you get there. it's a dead end.
the entire flight itself is shorter because you don't have to do the climb in the airplane, but the amount of weightlessness is supposedly around 4m for both
I'd rather take a Dragon tbh. Not just the experience but the safety.
There is a mission with civilians in September on board SpaceX's Dragon that will stay 3 days in orbit sooo...
Also Tom Cruise is scheduled to go to the ISS in a year/year and a half, also on Dragon.
To ride in an actual rocket, if you're spending that much money you might as well feel like a real astronaut
The production around this reminds me of esports. Like Branson just made it to the round of 8 as a foreign protoss.
How do you know that though, that's assuming there will be no iterations on the space craft itself, what about version 2, 3 and so on which improves on this design, that can go higher, stay longer, carry more payload etc?
blue origin does actually go to space too aren't they doing basically what alan sheppard did?
In my opinion, these billionaires should all battle for space. This shit is the only thing bringing mankind "back" into advancing further into space, after NASA had to throw the towel (till Musk came along).
Next step is probably lucrative mining of new ore on the moon, for (evil) mega corps who would pour billions into it. But I'll take it, to see all this stuff in my lifetime.
Next step is probably lucrative mining of new ore on the moon, for (evil) mega corps who would pour billions into it. But I'll take it, to see all this stuff in my lifetime.
none of the things you are asking about can be done by magic, though. like, if you're making a "better" virgin galactic spaceplane that can carry a meaningful payload into orbit, you need to make it capable of orbital re-entry (heat shielding and all) while also increasing thrust and size. all of those things take weight. which means you have to be able to lift a heavier object. which means you need to have a significantly bigger/better cargo aircraft to lift it with. at some point, this just... stops being viable, and you have to either make a spaceplane that takes off on its own power from a runway (and there are some plans for this) or you have to strap it to a rocket.
because branson's ship is carried to higher altitudes by an airplane, it is inherently limited by that airplane. a rocket isn't.
basically, yeah - they're going above the internationally recognized karman line, but not entering orbit. for me, that's still "vanity" because there's orbit and there's not, but it at least has slightly more significance
That narration was some outer worlds shit.
SIR Richard Branson. Space is virgin territory?????? Wut
SIR Richard Branson. Space is virgin territory?????? Wut
I feel out of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic would be more fun to experience, even if it doesn't go as high and isn't like your typical space flight. There's something about the somersault and the glide back down, in that style of craft, that looks super cool to me. Seems like it would be excilerating and then relaxing as you make your way back down.
The livestream was a bit cringy, and it sucked not being able to see inside due to the camera issues, and although it definitely felt like it was too focused on Richard and his super fun day out into "space" (but congratulations to him regardless), I'm super glad it happened. The more billionaires we have doing this, and the more companies getting in on it, the better in my opinion.
Yeah this is basically just a super expensive theme park ride, but I'm down for stuff like this to exist and become more common, and for more regular folk to have a chance of experiencing it.
The livestream was a bit cringy, and it sucked not being able to see inside due to the camera issues, and although it definitely felt like it was too focused on Richard and his super fun day out into "space" (but congratulations to him regardless), I'm super glad it happened. The more billionaires we have doing this, and the more companies getting in on it, the better in my opinion.
Yeah this is basically just a super expensive theme park ride, but I'm down for stuff like this to exist and become more common, and for more regular folk to have a chance of experiencing it.
Mistakes from our fathers etc. Yes we as a species are responsible, but we're also doing alot to fight global warming.
Not everything has to be negative all the time. We're capable of learning from our mistakes.
Even if we get a Trump here and there.
For all the discussion of "Was it space or not?" it's kinda meaningless (and the weird Blue Origin tweet about "96% of the world's population", wtf are they talking about?)
en.wikipedia.org
NASA, USAF (which is why NASA changed), and the very guy the line is named after, Kármán, would all say Branson is an Astronaut now. Plus some others:
From the wiki:
In short, it's unimportant and just another "Nuh uh, my billionaire is actually going to go to space!" contest.
Beyond all that it's not like there's a floating sign up there that says "Welcome to Space!", it's all gradual anyways so it just comes down to how you want to define the edge.
In the end the more important stuff will come down to how each company's launch method can be used and advanced.
Kármán line - Wikipedia
NASA, USAF (which is why NASA changed), and the very guy the line is named after, Kármán, would all say Branson is an Astronaut now. Plus some others:
From the wiki:
Wikipedia said:
In short, it's unimportant and just another "Nuh uh, my billionaire is actually going to go to space!" contest.
Beyond all that it's not like there's a floating sign up there that says "Welcome to Space!", it's all gradual anyways so it just comes down to how you want to define the edge.
In the end the more important stuff will come down to how each company's launch method can be used and advanced.
I agree. Tbh I actually found Virgin Galactic's take off and "space entry" tactics to be pretty fucking cool to watch lol. I hadn't seen anything like that before. Branson's "you can do anything!" speech was cringey as fuck though.
Best thing coming out of all this though is the sodium overload Bezos is experiencing.
aeronauts would probably make more sense than captain
I think as space tourism maybe becomes a thing, the term astronaut will evolve into meaning a person whos job it is to go to space, rather than the current definition which is just anybody who goes up real high.
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