I have just been reading about this on the BBC website now and I am well impressed, and 18 Months construction time is a very good time. It will put us at the end of 2010 so hopefully by the summer of 2011 Virgin Galactic will begin its first commercial flight.
While there are those who will look at this as nothing more than a flight of fancy I think a lot of people will take interest. Steve Landeene who is overseeing the project stated;
"It is not just about private astronauts going up, it is about bringing the cost structure down and about new medicines, solar power in space and the entire range of scientific benefits that can come from it."
300 people have signed up to Branson Spaceship 2 flights at $200,000 each which is $60,000,000 they’ve made already. The cost will come down, and I can see everyone on the this forum being able to afford a ticket within ten to fifteen years, maybe a bit longer, but it doesn’t matter. There will be a huge amount of commercial interest in this, first spaceship 1 and 2, then a space hotel, then a hotel on the moon, and then beyond the moon. I should think there’ll be a lot of companies wanting satellites launched and other things. I would think there are a lot of plans going on behind closed doors, given the opportunities commercial space travel could offer. All of a sudden NASA will look very outdated if they don’t pull their fingers out of their rear ends and stop worrying about the cost of this launch and that satellite. Cool stuff.
Its a bit Ironic that they chose New Mexico as the first space port, wonder how far away Roswell is?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8111243.stm
While there are those who will look at this as nothing more than a flight of fancy I think a lot of people will take interest. Steve Landeene who is overseeing the project stated;
"It is not just about private astronauts going up, it is about bringing the cost structure down and about new medicines, solar power in space and the entire range of scientific benefits that can come from it."
300 people have signed up to Branson Spaceship 2 flights at $200,000 each which is $60,000,000 they’ve made already. The cost will come down, and I can see everyone on the this forum being able to afford a ticket within ten to fifteen years, maybe a bit longer, but it doesn’t matter. There will be a huge amount of commercial interest in this, first spaceship 1 and 2, then a space hotel, then a hotel on the moon, and then beyond the moon. I should think there’ll be a lot of companies wanting satellites launched and other things. I would think there are a lot of plans going on behind closed doors, given the opportunities commercial space travel could offer. All of a sudden NASA will look very outdated if they don’t pull their fingers out of their rear ends and stop worrying about the cost of this launch and that satellite. Cool stuff.
Its a bit Ironic that they chose New Mexico as the first space port, wonder how far away Roswell is?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8111243.stm
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