I've been following this since it's announcement, even though the $200,000 ticket price is slightly out of my league. This will become "the norm" and prices will fall just like everything else, like you said; airplanes.

The second building on the moon will be a hotel and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Branson heads up a consortium and buys the ISS...

The future of space travel and technology lies in the commercial sector.

Would be great wouldn't it, even if it's only eight minutes?

Sendran.

Ive been following it too.
Branson buying the ISS makes me think about "Contact" by carl sagan.
The rich have a resort-like station in orbit, where you can go to slow the process of disease, etc.

I guess its just a really interesting time we live in. In my lifetime, I have went from records and cassettes, to ipod music players.
From Atari, to Xbox, to Playstation portable. Computers took up whole rooms the year I was born, now they fit in your knapsack.

I would definitely take the trip to the moon.

I watched the X Prize run that started all of this. It was a remarkable flight and very inspiring. It seems like so long ago since it happened. I would never pay that much money for what is essentially the world's largest roller coaster, but I am glad to see it happening. Now if only Bigelow Aerospace would get somewhere with their inflatable space stations, things would really seem like they are progressing.

If I won a few million quid on the Euro-millions lottery, I would definitely fork out £125k on that. It would be worth it for sure!

It seems to me that you'd need to be a millionare to pay for it.

That means your probably already being watched or already an elite.

If not, what if this was your ticket into the club, go up there, see and alien, and get told now your with us or your dead.

lol just kidding, but this will be out of reach for 99.5% of people...

This isnt going to work out well.

Its just to dangereous. And with that i dont mean the technology they use and all, but i mean the "others" that are in space and on the moon.

Sooner or later someone will stop this Virgin Galactic from going into space. And if someone from Eart doesnt do thaht, someone from somewhere else will, for those people's own safety

I used to fly a combat flight Sim IL2 sturmovik (Blitzpigs) with one of the engineers of the original prototype long before it started making news.

From the stories he told me, the guys behind the project were/are a great bunch and I am glad their design is about to go stratospheric.

Salute "Groucho"

The thing that gets me, is how would they keep anything secret if someone saw something up there?

Thats what i think holds this back so long, how will they stop people seeing things up there, they might not want the people to see.

Originally posted by nik1halo
If I won a few million quid on the Euro-millions lottery, I would definitely fork out £125k on that. It would be worth it for sure!

Just think of all those bankers with their bonus's. Pocket change for them not to mention football players. space will soon become a playground for the rich

I was waiting for some conspiracy to show up! I was hoping I didnt make this thread for nothing.

I fully believe in extraterrestrial life, the drake equation..etc. But I dont think there is anyone else "up there" per se. At least not that close. But I guess we would know if perhaps, the first mission goes kahblewy for no apparent reason.
I can already hear the false reports and hoaxes, from passengers. But maybe someone would get something concrete. Wouldnt that be cool? No security personal to shut you up!


Space will be a playground for the rich, but only for a while. it would soon become standard. Much like airlines.

If someone did see a UFO on one of those flights the headline would go something like this whether true or not:

Millionaire Banking Industry Giant now being investigated for adultery and banking fraud, now claims to see UFO's.

Thus destroying credibility and setting an example for future passengers.

[edit on 7-12-2009 by drift393]

A privately funded space program is a really good thing. As like everything else, the price of space tourism will lower and doors will open to the general public and eventually (like TWA back in the day) competitors will start this up and space travel will move into the private sector.

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On another note, Richard Branson is a thrill seeker. His ego is bigger than his pocket book. In most cases this is a bad thing but in this particular case we might see him going above and beyond to stroke it. His Ego might lead to Virgin doing great things with their space program like eventually putting a man on mars or better yet, dump billions into anti gravity research.

He always has to be the biggest baddest best out there.

[edit on 8-12-2009 by DaMod]

[edit on 8-12-2009 by DaMod]