Virgin unveils spaceship designs

Virgin unveils spaceship designs

news.bbc.co.uk

Virgin Galactic has released the final design of the launch system that will take fare-paying passengers into space.

It is based on the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne concept - a rocket ship that is lifted initially by a carrier plane before blasting skywards.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Pity it's going to cost $200k or so, hopefully this price will fall and one day many of us will get the chance to experience weightlessness (sp)

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

I swear Burt Rutan is a Thunderbirds fan, that or he has Gerry Anderson as an executive design consultant.

What astounds me is that he is doing stuff the Nasa just can't seem to manage, at a fraction of the costs. Must be really embarrasing for them to see the kind of stuff Rutan is churning out.

Originally posted by neformore
What astounds me is that he is doing stuff the Nasa just can't seem to manage, at a fraction of the costs. Must be really embarrasing for them to see the kind of stuff Rutan is churning out.

It's probably due to nasa being run by beancounters instead of the engineers who actually have a knowledge and a passion about their product

So I wonder if any of this will make it into the Department of Defense's SUSTAIN program, so we can start launching Special Forces and Marines to anywhere on the earth within an hour or so.

Quite interesting, I wonder if you have to sign some sort of non-disclosure contract before take off. You know...for those unplanned close encounters

reply to post by vegno


if it occurs on a us aircraft, or in us airspace or on us territory, you are automatically screwed anyway by technicality.

Already Passed by Congress On October 5, 1982, Dr. Brain T. Clifford of the Pentagon announced at a press conference ("The Star", New York, Oct. 5, 1982) that contact between U.S. citizens and extra-terrestrials or their vehicles is strictly illegal. According to a law already on the books (Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, adopted on July 16, 1969, before the Apollo moon shots), anyone guilty of such contact automatically becomes a wanted criminal to be jailed for one year and fined $5,000.

original article here

Ah, I never knew that! So wait...what constitutes US airspace? If you are in orbit around the earth directly above the US, are you bound by that law? And now that I think of it...if a law like that has passed, doesn't that implicitly confirm their existence?

Very sexy, no?

Source | BBCNews | Science/Nature | Virgin unveils spaceship designs

Originally posted by neformore
What astounds me is that he is doing stuff the Nasa just can't seem to manage, at a fraction of the costs.

Gee, just think of all the things NASA could be doing if the public part of their endeavors wasn't so doggone "expensive."

Yeah....right...

Imagine!


reply to post by MikeboydUS


What makes you think the DoD doesn't already have something better?

Are they under any obligation to tell us about it, if they do?

if you do not want to pay $200k than check Sleeper
he used to get free rides

Amazing Interior




Other pics

Soon as I can get the cash together I'm going!! The price should and hopefully will drop if more and more people sign up for it and if costs go down for the research and everything involved to accomplish this. It seems that the public is definitely going for this so they won't have a shortage of passengers.

Like Sleeper mentioned in his thread, the human race on this planet is heading for space travel by the end of the century...this has to be the first step for us regular folk.


Purduegrad05


[edit on 23-1-2008 by Purduegrad05]

Originally posted by vegno
Ah, I never knew that! So wait...what constitutes US airspace? If you are in orbit around the earth directly above the US, are you bound by that law?

honestly, after rereading the wording of the law, i am fairly certain that it applies to any us citizen regardless of where the encounter occurs.

Originally posted by vegno
And now that I think of it...if a law like that has passed, doesn't that implicitly confirm their existence?

exactly. especially considering the law was reviewed not too long ago.