Space flights officially the new thing

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Batman

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#288607 12-Jul-2021 07:43

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/11/tech/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-space-flight-scn/index.html

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/richard-bransons-virgin-galactic-unity-22-space-mission-billionaire-about-to-blast-off/T7ZZCPHQX5LWXEQCVVWMPNGWIE/

Richard Branson did it while you were sleeping

does it give out any CO2 i wonder ...

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#2742862 12-Jul-2021 09:03

It's more 'space tourism' is the new thing. Where they can charge to do it.

And lots, carrier flies to ~50,000ft. Then dumps them, then it pours out kerosene to ~103,000 while doing a backflip for 3mins and coming back.

It's more a look-at-me-I'm-a-'normal'-person doing it sort of thing this morning. E-peen Fight between a couple of billionaires. There's been a number of test flights prior finalising the amount of punch they need to stay within gravity and not float away with up to 3 crew. Just they took 'extras' this time and televised.

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#2742868 12-Jul-2021 09:18

A new form of Russian Roulette. Branson's had his spin.

networkn

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#2742908 12-Jul-2021 11:02

I can't believe this is actually a thing. To some degree, whilst I disagree with it, I can understand exploratory space travel.

Joyriding into space given the amount of c02 etc it uses, feels tone-deaf when every second topic discussed is climate change.

mattwnz

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#2743216 12-Jul-2021 16:44

I guess he was willing to take the risk of being an early user of it. Would have been a PR disaster if it had gone wrong, but guessthey had done lots of testing. But it was a very short time in 'space'. Quite cool technology though, especially the reentry procedure. Potentially this type of system could save more fuel than using rockets from the ground

jarledb

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#2743218 12-Jul-2021 16:59

mattwnz:

Potentially this type of system could save more fuel than using rockets from the ground

Would think they would use this platform to launch rockets to space as well, but they don't. It is just for the tourism flights to the edge of space.

Virgin Orbit does launch rockets to space from a 747. Would love to know if this costs less than launches with Rocket Lab or the SpaceX rideshare program.

The upcoming tourism flight with Blue Origin rocket can boost being the most expensive dip into space. Someone paid USD 28 million for the short ride up to about 100 KM over the earth.

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Oblivian

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#2743220 12-Jul-2021 17:07

jarledb:

The upcoming tourism flight with Blue Origin rocket can boost being the most expensive dip into space. Someone paid USD 28 million for the short ride up to about 100 KM over the earth.

In a flying thing that looks like it should be in an adult toy shop :P

~12m for V.O (total - rocket, not usage cost)

Falcon9 $~62m for sole-use 'as-new'

starting $1m for single ~200kg share ride

Then there is this. But hit rate of launch date is...a lot lower. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_Pegasus

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#2743221 12-Jul-2021 17:09

It does make me feel better about owning my 30km a week petrol car

gzt

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#2743278 12-Jul-2021 17:32

Branson is definitely the underdog in the space race. Good to see that the launch was a success.

gzt

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#2743280 12-Jul-2021 17:45

networkn: I can't believe this is actually a thing. To some degree, whilst I disagree with it, I can understand exploratory space travel. Joyriding into space given the amount of c02 etc it uses, feels tone-deaf when every second topic discussed is climate change.

Virgin claims the commerical flights will have the same per passenger CO2 footprint as a transatlantic flight. Makes sense - it's only a few hundred km round trip and no luggage. In practice this is not much different to a European holiday from USA and potentially not as bad as a European holiday from NZ.

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#2743283 12-Jul-2021 17:55

You see for those not keeping watch, it did seem like a great success.

Not that it wasn't, but it was the 22nd one (hence callsign). And 4th crewed. They did 3 to get CAA sign off. But they didn't seem to advertise previous ones like today

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#2743285 12-Jul-2021 18:01

gzt: Branson is definitely the underdog in the space race. Good to see that the launch was a success.

It was good that he was willing to take the risk himself by putting his own body on the line . I guess at 70 he could afford to, and he probably needed to for marketing.

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#2743287 12-Jul-2021 18:04

What do people think of the Jeff Bezos Blue Origin rocket? It has a very unusual / unfortunate shape.

IMO the Virgin Galactic tech is where we need to be heading, and away from these old style rockets. Although the self landing ones that space x do are cool.

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#2743294 12-Jul-2021 18:30

Yep. Third passenger into space. Only 60 years after a dog and a chimp!

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networkn

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#2743354 12-Jul-2021 19:17

gzt:
networkn: I can't believe this is actually a thing. To some degree, whilst I disagree with it, I can understand exploratory space travel. Joyriding into space given the amount of c02 etc it uses, feels tone-deaf when every second topic discussed is climate change.

Virgin claims the commerical flights will have the same per passenger CO2 footprint as a transatlantic flight. Makes sense - it's only a few hundred km round trip and no luggage. In practice this is not much different to a European holiday from USA and potentially not as bad as a European holiday from NZ.

Will these be like the 'claims' made by Volkswagen Group that their Diesels were meeting efficiency standards?

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#2743413 12-Jul-2021 19:41

networkn:

I can't believe this is actually a thing. To some degree, whilst I disagree with it, I can understand exploratory space travel.

Joyriding into space given the amount of c02 etc it uses, feels tone-deaf when every second topic discussed is climate change.

If it gave a growing number of people - billionaires and others - a better appreciation of "Spaceship Earth" as the generation space vessel we all rely on for everything.......then it may be worth the CO2 if they come back to the ground and work to improve the situation (put the Murdochs and Kochs in jail and shut down Fox Lies).

Otherwise......yeah ....It's conspicuous consumption of greenhouse gasses.

The one thing I thought was cool today about this was that it was the first time a person went to space in a spaceship that person owned. :-)

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