Virgin Galactic

[Eric Mc]

Some recent developments -

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1401/11spaceshiptw...

[Caruso]

Is that the 1st time it's gone supersonic?

[Eric Mc]

Not sure. It's designed for speeds up to about Mach 4 I think.

[London424]

So they are talking about the commercial flights starting this year...and this was only the 3rd time it's flown under rocket power.

Are they really going to take on passengers with such little testing?

Seems a bit risky doesn't it?

[Eric Mc]

Life is risky.

It's up to the individuals to decide whether they want to take that risk - as long as the risks are properly explained to them.

The Shuttle was deemed operational after only four flights - and Virgin Galactic is a far simpler and less complex machine than the Shuttle.

[Alapeno]

Surely a huge risk for a private company to go up with little testing over a government body. What if Justin Bieber dies on it!?

Edited to add: I would assume as there's a corporate risk to Mr. Branson they'll be testing more in depth than the shuttle.

[markiii]

Alapeno said:

Edited to add: I would assume as there's a corporate risk to Mr. Branson they'll be testing more in depth than the shuttle.

not seeing a downside

[Eric Mc]

Alapeno said:

Surely a huge risk for a private company to go up with little testing over a government body. What if Justin Bieber dies on it!?

Is that an expression of fear or hope?

[Alapeno]

Definitely not a downside! I just meant that the whole Virgin brand would suffer if something happened, so a financial incentive as well as moral for Virgin. Which should equal more preparation.

[Alapeno]

Eric Mc said:

Is that an expression of fear or hope?

Mixed emotions really. It would be a gift for the world of music and pop culture. On the other hand it would mean that my likelihood of going into space one day disappears.

[Eric Mc]

ash73 said:

The development seems to be going well, but I'd be interested to know why they didn't push the envelope a bit further; 5 mins weightlessness may seem a bit underwhelming for $250K, albeit with a spectacular view out the window.

To prolong the weightlessness, you need to go faster and higher.

Any faster and you would run into serious aerodynamic heating problems.

Also, higher speeds results in fairly unknown territory for control and stability issues - especially for a relatively small company like Scaled Projects to overcome.

[rovermorris999]

Video here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/10565691/...
Sorry if a repost.

[Eric Mc]

Not may fare paying passengers get to fly at Mach 4.

[MrCarPark]

A bit of a non-story, but interesting anyway:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/virgin-galactic-space...

[CrutyRammers]

MrCarPark said:

A bit of a non-story, but interesting anyway:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/virgin-galactic-space...

Presumably, all he'd have to do is launch outside of US airspace to get around that.

[Eric Mc]

A bit difficult given that the whole operation is based at Mojave Airport and has been for 40 plus years.

[Eric Mc]

They'll be OK.

[Hilts]

Was out for a run in the desert and this flew over at 500 feet.

[Eric Mc]

Wow - great "spot".

I'm sure Burt Rutan knows what he's doing.

[Kenzle]

Interesting article in the Times today on Virgin Galactic.

Basically the whole thing is a shambles - Branson stated many years ago that the first flight was expected to be in 2007, the whole thing keeps getting pushed farther and farther out with so little progress. The end goal of 5 mins of weightlessness with a sub-orbital flight is hardly aiming high either - Elon Musk and his SpaceX program is a wholly private venture and has already done manned orbital flights and delivered cargo to the International Space Station.

Virgin Galactic seems to be all PR and hype and not much of anything else.
I doubt it will ever take any passengers