45000 feet...
... and the landing gear is still down?
Virgin Galactic, the nascent suborbital joyride company backed by bearded biz-lord Richard Branson, has announced a further milestone on its road to dominance in the exoatmospheric-excursion market. In a test yesterday, one of the firm's passenger rocketplanes was successfully dropped from a jet "mothership" at 45,000 feet to …
>>>It's stretching reality to call this a "commercial spaceship"
No, not really. Just because it doesn't reach orbit doesn't mean its not a spaceship. It exceeds 100km altitude, so therefor makes it in to space, and it does it (will do it) with paying passengers.
Seems that commercial spaceship is entirely appropriate.
Every single media outlet in the world slapped this picture and/or accompanying footage with the Virgin logo bang in the middle of the screen/web/paper at prime time/space (hello el reg, did you realise what you are doing by putting this as a "prime story".
That is bound to cost something. In fact I cannot think of the amount of money this could have possibly cost.
Sir Richard has always been an expert in doing this. He has done it many times with his baloon escapades, the car across the La Manche and countless other "adventures". And he continues to do it. Anyway, you got to give him credit. The great master of marketing wins again.
1. If you successfully pleasure your other half (or willing passenger/host(ess)) in the bogs during flight, will it be the 70-mile high club?
2. What films will be shown?
3. Will the in-flight meals be dished out in those plastic bags with straws like astronauts have?
Inquiring minds would like to know.
Probably from Mojave spaceport to New Mexico spaceport.
Actually the whole system *could* lob its (rocket assisted) payload a *very* long way (If you think about a low earth orbit as c90mins if this thing *could* do that you'd be 45 mins to *anywhere*). AFAIK the launch planes takeoff needs are not *very* unusual. I think all countries in the developed world have at least 1 (and likely several) that could accommodate it.
Who'd pay that kind of cost is a more interesting problem. Obviously someone with *very* high value cargo to move. Spare parts was the classic example used in "Halfway to anywhere", where if a big enough system breaks down *almost* any cost can be justified due to the huge loss of production.
Human organs are a candidate (although storage tech seems to be getting better) and of course VIP transport for high level face to face discussions.
Or making the Cannes Film Festival commutable from California (not *quite* as extravagant as you might think. There is a reason why people hire $20m yachts as sleeping accommodation apart from showing people just how rich they are).
The big stumbling block to this brave new world.
It's American.
ITAR rules (described by one aerospace insider as "The nearest thing to a protection racket I've ever seen") would pretty much forbid export (including flying to) a foreign country. You might try finding out an exact figure for the Isp for the rocket engine for example.
However *like* the film business if it proves successful *everyone* will want to be the 2nd company to do it.
Note that through the 1930's 2 stage plane designs were proposed to cross the Atlantic (mostly for the high value cargo of mail), *despite* Lindbergh's non stop US to Paris flight in 1927.
You don't hear much about them today.
No way is it a 'space' ship. I know what I mean by 'space' (and the formal definition is frankly rubbish, must be French), and you simply can't be anywhere there without doing escape velocity first. It's a glider launched from the thinnest of atmospheres, and maybe quite fun as a fairground ride for our epoch.
So the International Space Station isn't in space?
I'll stick with the "100 km above mean sea level" definition, thanks.
I wonder if the offer to pay $1m to film a porno in zero gravity will now be increased. I hope so, and I hope it's accepted. It would be good to get some proper entertainment out of all this investment.
Good point, so that's an exaggeration too. But the ISS has the option to be just a tiny fraction faster and then they really would be in space. Actually, we're all in 'space' when we jump, it's just that our orbits intersect with the earth's quite soon. Also, kms are French too - told you so. And Paris is in France.
1. No. The highest you can go is 68, once the ship hits 69 you will both be eating it. Therefor it will then be called the 69 club.
2. Apollo 13.
3. Flight will be to short for meals, however no one will care while they are screaming due to the engine going out.
My question is, will the VSS Enterprise actually make it to space or will it sit like the NASA Enterprise?
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"..No way is it a 'space' ship. I know what I mean by 'space', and you simply can't be anywhere there without doing escape velocity first..."
I get the impression that you do not know what 'escape velocity' is. Why don't you have a look at the Wiki, where you will find out that escape velocity can be any figure down to 0, depending on your height.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity
(And no, you do not have to achieve 'escape velocity' to get into space. You could happily go to the Moon by climbing up a ladder if you had enough energy and time...)
Climbing a ladder to the Moon would be rather difficult, even if you could find a long enough ladder that wouldn't collapse under its own weight.
Now, climbing up an orbital tether made of superstong nanotube type materials might just be possible, and to me such 'space elevators' seem a much more worthwhile endeavour than tourist trips on ballistic trajectories.
This is just a re-run of the old confusion about Alan Shepard being the first American in space (in a 15 min sub orbital hop very similar to Virgin's plans) and John Glenn being the first American in orbit (what people today think of as being in 'Space'). Sub-orbital was also all that was needed to secure the Ansari X-Prize
Its a smart plan - book up the sub-orbital schedule with early adopters and get your foot in the door, make a shed load of money and then use it presumably to develop orbital capability and charge all the early adopters again. Meanwhile the now well tested and streamlined sub orbital model can be punted to the well off rather than the super rich. Just like DVD and Blu-Ray!
Incremental testing.
When the first *paying* passenger gets on board this *exact* vehicle will probably have been tested 10s, if not *100s* of times using *exactly* the same hardware in a design in which *every* engine can be safely shut down if there is a problem.
You may disagree with the launch and say it's not orbital (it's not by a *very* long way. That does not absolutely rule out the idea it could *become* orbital) but this pattern (an incrementally testable architecture with abort across the *whole* range) is the way *all* future human carrying space launch systems *should* be developed.