Virgin Galactic's spaceship makes solo flight

This is pretty cool and I wish them the best of luck, but it's pretty disapointing that it's been 6 years since space ship one went into space, and that it'll porobably be another year before SS2 starts it's commercial operation.

I just can't figure out why it takes 7 years to put fancy seats in something.

Originally posted by fieryjaguarpaw
This is pretty cool and I wish them the best of luck, but it's pretty disapointing that it's been 6 years since space ship one went into space, and that it'll porobably be another year before SS2 starts it's commercial operation.

I just can't figure out why it takes 7 years to put fancy seats in something.

LOL. Yeah I was watching during the first launch for the X Prize. In fact my whole office shut down to watch it. This is good news and yeah, I had also, at first, been dissapointed that it would take so long, but there is in fact a reason. Space ship one was a custom built model with three seats. The VSS Enterprise is a MUCH larger model with something like 8 seats. This meant a retrofit of the motor & the body, new stress test, bigger equipment, etc.

Also given who their passengers will be there is a 0 tolerance for flight failure.

Also, they had to build a new mother ship that could carry the Enterprise.

Two more steps till first passenger flight... in flight engine tests and manned flight to apogee.

Congratulations Virgin Galactic!

One step closer to a blooming future for space tourism. Even though prices are still too high they will decline over the coming decades, especially when the competition steps up and others are encouraged to take part in this business, after-all there is much money to be made.