https://amp.9news.com.au/article/b847200f-d608-404e-9b7a-2dd850df3ed5

Virgin Galactic’s tourism spaceship climbed more than 82 kilometres high above California’s Mojave Desert today, reaching for the first time what the company considers the boundary of space. That’s high enough for paying customers.

The rocket ship hit an altitude of 82 kilometres before beginning its gliding descent on Thursday (local time), said mission official Enrico Palermo. It landed on a runway minutes later.

Virgin Galactic aims to take paying customers on the six-passenger rocket, which is about the size of an executive jet. Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson has said he wants to be one of the first on board.

At the start of the test flight, a special jet carrying the Virgin Space Ship Unity flew to an altitude near 13,100 meters before releasing the craft. The spaceship ignited its rocket engine and it quickly hurtled upward and out of sight of viewers on the ground. The spaceship reached Mach 2.9.

When Branson licensed the SpaceShipOne technology, he envisioned a fleet carrying paying passengers by 2007, launching them from a facility in southern New Mexico called Spaceport America.

But there were significant setbacks. Three technicians were killed in 2007 by an explosion while testing a propellant system at Scaled Composites LLC, which built SpaceShipOne and was building the first SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic.

Then, in 2014, SpaceShipTwo broke apart during a test flight by Scaled Composites when the co-pilot prematurely unlocked its unique “feathering” braking system and it began to deploy.

During descent, the craft’s twin tails are designed to rotate upward to slow it down, then return to a normal flying configuration before the craft glides to a landing on a runway.

New versions of SpaceShipTwo are built by a Virgin Galactic sister company and flight testing is now in-house. Its previous test flight reached 52 kilometres.

There are quite a few videos related to this.

Branson reckons he’s got 700 punters ready to pay 250k for a short ride.
I don’t think this venture will ever turn a profit for the record salesman.

Peak Warming Man said:

Branson reckons he’s got 700 punters ready to pay 250k for a short ride.
I don’t think this venture will ever turn a profit for the record salesman.

I do. Every flight for the next 25 years is going to be booked out, even if the craft kills all its occupants once or twice. At a price that low, even I would be interested. But I don’t believe in waiting that long.

We have one of those rocket things down the road from us. Parked in the library car park.

I won’t have a spare 250K laying about for holiday expenditure at any time in the near or distant future.

roughbarked said:

I won’t have a spare 250K laying about for holiday expenditure at any time in the near or distant future.

My house is worth more than that. Could always downsize.

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

I won’t have a spare 250K laying about for holiday expenditure at any time in the near or distant future.

My house is worth more than that. Could always downsize.

Mine is only worth half that at a guess.

80 km is still not official space though. :(

Spiny Norman said:

80 km is still not official space though. :(

True. But high enough to bungee jump from.

Virgin Galactic has no intention of going higher.

What’s the density and pressure there. I’ll check. The US standard atmosphere only goes up to 80 km. At 80 km the density is 0.000015 times the surface density and pressure is 0.00001 times surface pressure. A thousandth of 1%.

mollwollfumble said:

Spiny Norman said:

80 km is still not official space though. :(

True. But high enough to bungee jump from.

Virgin Galactic has no intention of going higher.

What’s the density and pressure there. I’ll check. The US standard atmosphere only goes up to 80 km. At 80 km the density is 0.000015 times the surface density and pressure is 0.00001 times surface pressure. A thousandth of 1%.

True, but the official lower boundary is 100 km. If we’re allowed to make up our own lower boundaries, then mine is 45,000’, and since I’ve flown that high I’m an astronaut* as well.

• Space cadet!

Spiny Norman said:

mollwollfumble said:

Spiny Norman said:

80 km is still not official space though. :(

True. But high enough to bungee jump from.

Virgin Galactic has no intention of going higher.

What’s the density and pressure there. I’ll check. The US standard atmosphere only goes up to 80 km. At 80 km the density is 0.000015 times the surface density and pressure is 0.00001 times surface pressure. A thousandth of 1%.

True, but the official lower boundary is 100 km. If we’re allowed to make up our own lower boundaries, then mine is 45,000’, and since I’ve flown that high I’m an astronaut* as well.

• Space cadet!
  

Did the boundary used to be 50 miles?

Ever since I found out the price of moon rocks I think I have found a way to make space pay.

You offer burials on the moon, it will be in the form of a burial urns in a lightweight metal (or suitably stable plastic) all engraved and premium looking. The selling point is a perpetual grave site that will outlast your own civilisation and will likely become a conserved sight seeing spot on an inhabited moon.

And the same lander can as well as marking the grave spot digs a few rocks to be rocketed back and sold, to collecters and also premium buyers of the grave site who want a memento for the mantelpiece.

sibeen said:

Spiny Norman said:

mollwollfumble said:

True. But high enough to bungee jump from.

Virgin Galactic has no intention of going higher.

What’s the density and pressure there. I’ll check. The US standard atmosphere only goes up to 80 km. At 80 km the density is 0.000015 times the surface density and pressure is 0.00001 times surface pressure. A thousandth of 1%.

True, but the official lower boundary is 100 km. If we’re allowed to make up our own lower boundaries, then mine is 45,000’, and since I’ve flown that high I’m an astronaut* as well.

• Space cadet!
  

Did the boundary used to be 50 miles?

Only in the early days of the US military. The international standard of 100 km is recognised everywhere, including NASA.

That should be to make the moon pay. Space obviously pays with satellites mapping and transmitting.

Promised the galaxy, but delivered a sub-orbital glimpse of the edge of space.

AwesomeO said:

That should be to make the moon pay. Space obviously pays with satellites mapping and transmitting.

Now that you mention it.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/elon-musk-sending-japanese-billionaire-moon-and-hes-taking-group-artists-him-180970333/

Elon Musk Is Sending a Japanese Billionaire to the Moon, and He’s Taking a Group of Artists With Him

Maezawa had signed up to be the first commercial passenger on the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), a nearly 387-foot-tall vehicle currently under development by the Tesla founder’s astronomical-centered start-up, SpaceX. Maezawa, who has a net worth of roughly $3 billion and is listed by Forbes as the 18th richest person in Japan, not only secured his own place on BFR’s inaugural space trip, but purchased all of the seats on the rocket, ensuring that he’s free to hand-pick the people who will accompany him on the one-week journey.

Project website https://dearmoon.earth/

A painter, musician, film director, fashion designer…
Some of Earth’s greatest talents will board a spacecraft
and be inspired in a way they have never been before.

If Pablo Picasso had been able to see the moon up-close,
what kind of paintings would he have drawn?
If John Lennon could have seen the curvature of the Earth,
what kind of songs would he have written?
If they had gone to space, how would the world have looked today?

People are creative and have a great imagination.
We all have the ability to dream dreams that have never been dreamt, to sing songs that have never been sung, to paint that which has never been seen before.

I hope that this project will inspire the dreamer within each of us.

Together with Earth’s top artists, I will be heading to the moon… just a little earlier than everyone else.

mollwollfumble said:

AwesomeO said:

That should be to make the moon pay. Space obviously pays with satellites mapping and transmitting.

Now that you mention it.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/elon-musk-sending-japanese-billionaire-moon-and-hes-taking-group-artists-him-180970333/

Elon Musk Is Sending a Japanese Billionaire to the Moon, and He’s Taking a Group of Artists With Him

Maezawa had signed up to be the first commercial passenger on the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), a nearly 387-foot-tall vehicle currently under development by the Tesla founder’s astronomical-centered start-up, SpaceX. Maezawa, who has a net worth of roughly $3 billion and is listed by Forbes as the 18th richest person in Japan, not only secured his own place on BFR’s inaugural space trip, but purchased all of the seats on the rocket, ensuring that he’s free to hand-pick the people who will accompany him on the one-week journey.

Project website https://dearmoon.earth/

A painter, musician, film director, fashion designer…
Some of Earth’s greatest talents will board a spacecraft
and be inspired in a way they have never been before.

If Pablo Picasso had been able to see the moon up-close,
what kind of paintings would he have drawn?
If John Lennon could have seen the curvature of the Earth,
what kind of songs would he have written?
If they had gone to space, how would the world have looked today?

People are creative and have a great imagination.
We all have the ability to dream dreams that have never been dreamt, to sing songs that have never been sung, to paint that which has never been seen before.

I hope that this project will inspire the dreamer within each of us.

Together with Earth’s top artists, I will be heading to the moon… just a little earlier than everyone else.

I’d be interested in a follow up on this.

If you had nothing to do for a fortnight except travel on a spacecraft around the Moon and back. Like an artist’s retreat to the country. But to the Moon instead.

What would you paint?
What music would you compose?
What film would you create?
What fashion would you design?

It doesn’t have to be obvious. Ken Sugimori went on an artist’s retreat to the country and invented Pokemon.

Peak Warming Man said:

Branson reckons he’s got 700 punters ready to pay 250k for a short ride.
I don’t think this venture will ever turn a profit for the record salesman.

Hard to say. They’ve spent about 800 million on this thing so far. It seems they are getting pretty close to going live now, so it might end up being about $1B, but remember that some of that money was spent over a decade ago: if you want to really recoup, you have to allow for opportunity cost. Given the time between money spent and revenue received, they’d really want about $2B in revenue, quick smart, to consider it a profitable exercise.

I’ve no idea what their projected operational costs but let us estimate that after costs and taxes they were making say 100 k per passenger. In the first year of commercial operation they only anticipate a flight per week. To make it worth while on a $2B investment they’d want a net revenue of 200 million per year: some 2000 passengers per year. 333 flights per year, about a flight per day. I mean all this is ballpark but it is going to be something in that order or magnitude.

There are plenty of people in the world for whom $250000 is nothing. If the experience is really amazing and word of mouth is good and their marketing works, then maybe they can keep a steady stream of wealthy folks passing through. But on the other hand, perhaps part of the attraction is that you’ve done something that few people have done and after a few years of operation, the pool of customers will wane.

Also, Branson is facing serious competition from Musk and Bezos, each of whom is working on rival projects.

This might just be Branson’s vanity project. Could be worse, it’s not as though he’s driving slaves to build him a pyramid.

no point at all unless it’s 100km high. save your money

Dropbear said:

no point at all unless it’s 100km high. save your money

yeah, even the byrds only got up to eight miles high.

Dropbear said:

no point at all unless it’s 100km high. save your money

Not for about 40 years, and it is still seared into my brane.

Dropbear said:

no point at all unless it’s 100km high. save your money

its near enough, for most punters.

Dropbear said:

no point at all unless it’s 100km high. save your money

80 km up is high enough for a bungee jump.

party_pants said:

Dropbear said:

no point at all unless it’s 100km high. save your money

its near enough, for most punters.

nearly an astronaut is like nearly sleeping with JLaw..

Dropbear said:

party_pants said:

Dropbear said:

no point at all unless it’s 100km high. save your money

its near enough, for most punters.

nearly an astronaut is like nearly sleeping with JLaw..

I nearly slept with JLaw, and look where her career has gone since then!

There have now been six commercial flights for Virgin Galactic, typically at intervals of a month. The previous plan was to launch three times per month. There’s a considerable backlog of paid customers.

An incident in the most recent flight will lead to further delays.
https://www.9news.com.au/world/virgin-galactic-grounded-after-part-falls-off-during-space-mission/4fb4a648-a029-4c97-b3ef-b6d0447acc6b

Still, twenty years after the company was founded, VG is the first private company to have regular commercial space passenger launches.

dv said:

There have now been six commercial flights for Virgin Galactic, typically at intervals of a month. The previous plan was to launch three times per month. There’s a considerable backlog of paid customers.

An incident in the most recent flight will lead to further delays.
https://www.9news.com.au/world/virgin-galactic-grounded-after-part-falls-off-during-space-mission/4fb4a648-a029-4c97-b3ef-b6d0447acc6b

Still, twenty years after the company was founded, VG is the first private company to have regular commercial space passenger launches.

People will die doing this.

I’m not trying to be a Jonah about it, it’s just a fact. People have died do just about everything that people do. There’s risks, that’s how it is. Safety is difficult to guarantee at any time.

But, i bet the media gets all horrified and traumatised when it happens.

captain_spalding said:

dv said:

There have now been six commercial flights for Virgin Galactic, typically at intervals of a month. The previous plan was to launch three times per month. There’s a considerable backlog of paid customers.

An incident in the most recent flight will lead to further delays.
https://www.9news.com.au/world/virgin-galactic-grounded-after-part-falls-off-during-space-mission/4fb4a648-a029-4c97-b3ef-b6d0447acc6b

Still, twenty years after the company was founded, VG is the first private company to have regular commercial space passenger launches.

People will die doing this.

I’m not trying to be a Jonah about it, it’s just a fact. People have died do just about everything that people do. There’s risks, that’s how it is. Safety is difficult to guarantee at any time.

But, i bet the media gets all horrified and traumatised when it happens.

I mean people die all the time just driving to work.

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

dv said:

There have now been six commercial flights for Virgin Galactic, typically at intervals of a month. The previous plan was to launch three times per month. There’s a considerable backlog of paid customers.

An incident in the most recent flight will lead to further delays.
https://www.9news.com.au/world/virgin-galactic-grounded-after-part-falls-off-during-space-mission/4fb4a648-a029-4c97-b3ef-b6d0447acc6b

Still, twenty years after the company was founded, VG is the first private company to have regular commercial space passenger launches.

People will die doing this.

I’m not trying to be a Jonah about it, it’s just a fact. People have died do just about everything that people do. There’s risks, that’s how it is. Safety is difficult to guarantee at any time.

But, i bet the media gets all horrified and traumatised when it happens.

I mean people die all the time just driving to work.

won’t happen to me!

Perhaps the media gets all tizzified about it, because, like the Titanic submarine deaths, the victims are unlikely to be e.g. a pipe fitter from a lower-middle class suburb, but more likely to be rather well-off. Rather well-off, indeed.

And the idea that rich people should be at the same, or greater, risks than the peasantry may not be something that media people are comfortable with.

captain_spalding said:

Perhaps the media gets all tizzified about it, because, like the Titanic submarine deaths, the victims are unlikely to be e.g. a pipe fitter from a lower-middle class suburb, but more likely to be rather well-off. Rather well-off, indeed.

And the idea that rich people should be at the same, or greater, risks than the peasantry may not be something that media people are comfortable with.

that and it was an unusual way to die.

Bogsnorkler said:

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

People will die doing this.

I’m not trying to be a Jonah about it, it’s just a fact. People have died do just about everything that people do. There’s risks, that’s how it is. Safety is difficult to guarantee at any time.

But, i bet the media gets all horrified and traumatised when it happens.

I mean people die all the time just driving to work.

won’t happen to me!

I learnt a lesson a long time ago.

A police officer i knew commented on car crash deaths. He said ‘no-one ever got into a car thinking ‘i’ll quite possibly die on this trip’‘.

Since then, i’ve often got into the car thinking, ‘ y’know, if i don’t do this properly, i just might get killed on this trip’.

Gives you a refreshed focus on your driving.

Bogsnorkler said:

captain_spalding said:

Perhaps the media gets all tizzified about it, because, like the Titanic submarine deaths, the victims are unlikely to be e.g. a pipe fitter from a lower-middle class suburb, but more likely to be rather well-off. Rather well-off, indeed.

And the idea that rich people should be at the same, or greater, risks than the peasantry may not be something that media people are comfortable with.

that and it was an unusual way to die.

I think that this bloke gets that award for this week:

ABC News:

Not many people get to combine crashing their own helicopter and drowning into their demise.

captain_spalding said:

Bogsnorkler said:

dv said:

I mean people die all the time just driving to work.

won’t happen to me!

I learnt a lesson a long time ago.

A police officer i knew commented on car crash deaths. He said ‘no-one ever got into a car thinking ‘i’ll quite possibly die on this trip’‘.

Since then, i’ve often got into the car thinking, ‘ y’know, if i don’t do this properly, i just might get killed on this trip’.

Gives you a refreshed focus on your driving.

Wont stop you dying from a drug fucked idiot on ice doing 150k.

Bogsnorkler said:

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

People will die doing this.

I’m not trying to be a Jonah about it, it’s just a fact. People have died do just about everything that people do. There’s risks, that’s how it is. Safety is difficult to guarantee at any time.

But, i bet the media gets all horrified and traumatised when it happens.

I mean people die all the time just driving to work.

won’t happen to me!

mainly because I’m retired so don’t go to work.

Peak Warming Man said:

captain_spalding said:

Bogsnorkler said:

won’t happen to me!

I learnt a lesson a long time ago.

A police officer i knew commented on car crash deaths. He said ‘no-one ever got into a car thinking ‘i’ll quite possibly die on this trip’‘.

Since then, i’ve often got into the car thinking, ‘ y’know, if i don’t do this properly, i just might get killed on this trip’.

Gives you a refreshed focus on your driving.

Wont stop you dying from a drug fucked idiot on ice doing 150k.

Actually it might. Being an alert driver lowers the chance of death by fuckwit.

Peak Warming Man said:

captain_spalding said:

Bogsnorkler said:

won’t happen to me!

I learnt a lesson a long time ago.

A police officer i knew commented on car crash deaths. He said ‘no-one ever got into a car thinking ‘i’ll quite possibly die on this trip’‘.

Since then, i’ve often got into the car thinking, ‘ y’know, if i don’t do this properly, i just might get killed on this trip’.

Gives you a refreshed focus on your driving.

Wont stop you dying from a drug fucked idiot on ice doing 150k.

No, but at least i might dodge a few situations where i could have contributed to my own destruction.

>> death by fuckwit

lol

captain_spalding said:

Peak Warming Man said:

captain_spalding said:

I learnt a lesson a long time ago.

A police officer i knew commented on car crash deaths. He said ‘no-one ever got into a car thinking ‘i’ll quite possibly die on this trip’‘.

Since then, i’ve often got into the car thinking, ‘ y’know, if i don’t do this properly, i just might get killed on this trip’.

Gives you a refreshed focus on your driving.

Wont stop you dying from a drug fucked idiot on ice doing 150k.

No, but at least i might dodge a few situations where i could have contributed to my own destruction.

True enough.

captain_spalding said:

Bogsnorkler said:

dv said:

I mean people die all the time just driving to work.

won’t happen to me!

I learnt a lesson a long time ago.

A police officer i knew commented on car crash deaths. He said ‘no-one ever got into a car thinking ‘i’ll quite possibly die on this trip’‘.

Since then, i’ve often got into the car thinking, ‘ y’know, if i don’t do this properly, i just might get killed on this trip’.

Gives you a refreshed focus on your driving.

Hmm, every time I get into a car I think: “I’ll quite possibly die on this trip.”

But I’m always a passenger, nothing much I can do about it.

Bubblecar said:

captain_spalding said:

Bogsnorkler said:

won’t happen to me!

I learnt a lesson a long time ago.

A police officer i knew commented on car crash deaths. He said ‘no-one ever got into a car thinking ‘i’ll quite possibly die on this trip’‘.

Since then, i’ve often got into the car thinking, ‘ y’know, if i don’t do this properly, i just might get killed on this trip’.

Gives you a refreshed focus on your driving.

Hmm, every time I get into a car I think: “I’ll quite possibly die on this trip.”

But I’m always a passenger, nothing much I can do about it.

You could possibly refrain from startling the driver.

My thoughts are quite morbid these days. I often think the same, or that I could die in my sleep. Probably evidence my depression is getting worse.

OCDC said:

Bubblecar said:

captain_spalding said:

I learnt a lesson a long time ago.

A police officer i knew commented on car crash deaths. He said ‘no-one ever got into a car thinking ‘i’ll quite possibly die on this trip’‘.

Since then, i’ve often got into the car thinking, ‘ y’know, if i don’t do this properly, i just might get killed on this trip’.

Gives you a refreshed focus on your driving.

Hmm, every time I get into a car I think: “I’ll quite possibly die on this trip.”

But I’m always a passenger, nothing much I can do about it.

You could possibly refrain from startling the driver.

My thoughts are quite morbid these days. I often think the same, or that I could die in my sleep. Probably evidence my depression is getting worse.

I’m always very considerate of the driver.

Sympathies re your depression. But increasing awareness of one’s mortality is also just a sign of realising that one is getting older and tempus fugit, life is fragile, loved ones are fading too, doors of opportunity are closing….and adapting to all this without being so frightened by it all that you end up just marking time, instead of making the most of it.

After 12 spaceflights, including 7 commercial spaceflights, VSS Unity has been retired.
There will be a break in launches as VG works on a launch platform capable of operating over a hundred times a year.