I am sooooooooo going.....wish me better luck on this trip...this last vacation nearly killed me lol

How are you going to be able to afford the ticket? It will only be for rich people for a long while yet. I don't like this bit:


They had already won the X-Prize before he stepped in with funding, and a passenger service was the goal to begin with. Maybe he came up with the name, but then it is just a play on the name of his airline, Virgin Atlantic.

I can't say...that's about 5 years into the future for me...assuming that they'd even let people with half a lung travel...but if there's way, there's a will...



All that aside...its still very exciting...don't you think, Andrew...that space travel for ordinary people is on the horizon? The government space agencies certainly aren't doing much...they seem content to launch probes and take pictures (although I am pretty excited about the new astrobiology department at NASA)...maybe private funding is the only way...

If i had to pick one thing to do in my life time, going into space would be it, i can only hope that it is more accessible in the time i have left on this Planet...

Do you have one and a half lungs or just half a lung? I believe Virgin Galactic's flight profile has an acceleration limit of 3g. The Space Shuttle's acceleration doesn't exceed 3g either. Earlier astronauts had to cope with worse: on Apollo it was about 4g and on Mercury it was more than 6. The acceleration of ascent is the most strenuous aspect of a rocket flight. Reducing the acceleration required for launch is one of the goals of manned rocket designers because the lower the acceleration, the greater the number of eligible people there are to travel into space, so they are not only catering to those of an equivalent level of physical fitness to the Mercury Seven. I am sure also, that there will be centrifuges on the ground to test one's ability to cope with the rocket flight.


Yes, it is exciting. It is my dream too to travel in space and also to be professionally involved in making it happen. However, I fear that if there is not some revolution in the way in which we generate energy, there will be too much economic stagnation to ever make low cost space travel viable or to build space stations or space colonies. I expect that if Barrack Obama is elected, he will set back US governmental manned space flight by more than a decade and will choose to focus on robotic science missions instead.

This post has been edited by Andrew: Jul 28 2008, 04:37 AM

I should say on a suborbital flight. Re-entry from orbit can be just as strenuous as launch, even worse on some missions. On Mercury, the acceleration of re-entry was around 12g. This is improved on the Shuttle. If something went wrong on the launch pad, the earlier rockets, and the current Russian Soyuz, would fire the launch escape tower, which is a rocket that sits above the crew capsule, and this would take the capsule up in the air at about 16g. But fortunately, that is not something you need to prepare for on a spaceplane-type rocket, because they do not have launch escape towers.

thats crazy... are they expecting average civilians to be able to handle that? that is hilarious!

there is no way that you are getting me to go up into galdern space unless we get anti gravity. i hate heights, i guess i've never been a bird before...

What are you talking about? Scaled Composites' Space Ship 2 will have a peak acceleration of 3g, which is exceeded by most fairground rides.

oh yeah huh,

thats right, its not a rocket ship, its like a space jetliner...

id still be scaared.

One and a half lung. That's good news about the Gs, I hope I'll be able to handle that when I'm able to go.




You're probably right there. The US is already falling behind, I think. Private funding and profit seem to be the only thing that will move us forward.

The first stage, the White Knight 2, is a gas turbine (jet engine) aeroplane. SpaceShip 2 detaches above 50,000ft and travels to 68 miles' altitude under rocket power.


Apparently Virgin Galactic are requiring a 6g+ centrifuge test for all would-be passengers.

Coincidentally, today is the day that the White Knight 2 aircraft is due to be rolled out.

Well, 5 years from now, maybe they'll keep improving on it and maybe I'll keep improving too...its still something that I didn't think I'd ever see in my day and now I know, at least, that my daughter will surely see it done...if we don't nuke ourselves or bake our atmosphere first, that is...

very fascinating

You can see pictures of the White Knight 2, VMS Eve, unveiled today, here:

http://www.virgingalactic.com/pressftp/

This post has been edited by Andrew: Jul 28 2008, 03:03 PM

Is there are any plans for VG or another private company to build any sort of space station or lunar based station?

Bigelow Aerospace, company of US hotel tycoon Robert Bigelow (Budget Suites of America), are planning to build commercial space stations. They have flown two test spacecraft, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, both launched on Russian rockets. They are planning to launch a full sized habitat around 2010. Their space station designs are inflatable, to keep the mass and volume on launch at a minimum. The biggest hurdle, I would say, is in commercial manned orbital access. I believe that Bigelow has an unclaimed $50million prize to the first private organization to put a person in orbit. If there is no such service, then his space stations count for nothing. There is not likely to be such a service for a good few years yet. Like many such things, they do what is easiest first (build an inflatable habitat, to give to another company to launch on their rocket), hoping that someone else is going to come along and take care of the difficult stuff (creating a service to put humans into orbit regularly and profitably).

I read in this BBC article that in nine years of operation, Virgin Galactic's CEO expects the ticket price to come down to $50,000:

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6382533.stm

I may have to wait 9 years then lol

It seems like these companies would generate a greater profit if they could dock their spaceship in orbit at a 'space resort' of sorts before returning to Earth. VG isn't going after Bigelow's $50 million prize?

It seems I am a bit behind the times. Bigelow's $50 million prize was first offered in mid-2004, just as Scaled Composites' victory in the X-Prize seemed assured, and required a 7 passenger re-usable spacecraft to reach Bigelow's space station in low earth orbit, with a fast turnaround between launches, before the end of the decade. It is now 2008, and the prize does not look any near being claimed before the 2010 deadline.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/bigel...ize_040927.html

Late last year, Bigelow upped his offer to $760 million to any company that would deliver eight launches to his specifications.

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12...-spaceship.html

He is also talking to Lockheed to provide an orbital launch service and intends to buy 50 Atlas V rockets.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/14/bi...lockheed_talks/