Read this in some scientist mag today in school I picked up (not new scientist).
Was really interested and thought I'd share a bit with BF2s if anyone hadn't heard of it.
Searched by the way.
And here we go...
We had Virgin flights, Virgin Trains and even Virgin Money.
Richard Branson is well known for breaking records, and he has another one set with:
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic is a company within Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which plans to offer sub-orbital spaceflights and later orbital spaceflights to the paying public.
Development of SpaceShipTwo
After talks throughout 2004, on September 24, 2004 Virgin Galactic signed a deal worth up to US$21 million with Mojave Aerospace Ventures to license the patents behind the Tier One project for purposes of space tourism. The deal was announced by Branson and Burt Rutan on September 27, 2004 at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London. The initial plan is for Rutan to design and build five suborbital tourist craft based on a scaled-up version of SpaceShipOne. Construction began in 2005, with twelve to eighteen months of intensive testing (comprising at least 50-100 test flights) planned. Actual spaceflights for ordinary citizens are expected to begin on the SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise in Upham, New Mexico soon after. It is unknown whether a recent explosion which took place at Scaled Composites will affect the date of the maiden flight. Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites presented their SpaceShip Two on January 23, 2008. The required 50 test flights are scheduled to begin in June of 2008.
General overview of the spacecraft flights
It is planned that the spacecraft are to be robust and affordable enough to take paying passengers. The craft is projected to be a six passenger, two pilot craft. It is planned to make suborbital flights, with a short period of weightlessness. The time from liftoff of the White Knight II booster carrying SpaceShipTwo until the touchdown of SpaceShipTwo after the suborbital flight will be about 2.5 hours. The suborbital flight itself will only be a small fraction of that time. The weightlessness will last approximately 6 minutes. Passengers will be able to release themselves from their seats during these 6 minutes and float around the cabin.
Bookings
Although the initial deposit is set to be $200,000 for the first 100 to fly, the next 400 will pay a deposit between $100,000 and $175,000; all passengers after that will pay a deposit of only $20,000 each.
Among those reported to have told Branson that they wished to be among the first to fly on the spacecraft are actor William Shatner, designer Philippe Starck, The Panic Channel guitarist Dave Navarro, Alien star Sigourney Weaver, Hollywood director Bryan Singer, Musician Moby, socialite Paris Hilton, and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking (who on January 8, 2007 announced plans to take a sub-orbital flight in 2009). Also, Richard Branson himself and some of his family members will be launched on the VSS Enterprise's first commercial flight in 2009, before everyone else. In 2006, Richard Branson offered actor William Shatner a free ride on the inaugural space launch in 2008, saving Shatner $200,000; however, Shatner turned it down, and said, "I do want to go up but I need guarantees I'll definitely come back". In addition, other celebrities such as Patrick Stewart have expressed serious doubts about flying into space. In March 2005, Doug Ramsberg, a native of Northglenn, Colorado, won a free trip to suborbital space aboard Virgin Galactic, from a Volvo sweepstakes sponsored by Virgin. In September 2006, Alan Watts, a British businessman, indicated that he was able to redeem 2,000,000 frequent flyer miles for a ticket aboard a 2009 Virgin Galactic space flight.
Commercial Introduction
The design of the vehicle was revealed to the press in January 2008, with the statement that the vehicle itself was around 60% complete.
In August 2005, the president of space tourism company Virgin Galactic stated that if the upcoming suborbital service with SpaceShipTwo is successful, the follow-up SpaceShipThree will be an orbital craft.
On 28 September 2006, Sir Richard Branson unveiled a mock-up of the SpaceShipTwo at the NextFest exposition, held in the Javits Convention Center in New York.
Training began on the 3rd of December 2007.
Spaceship One
Spaceship Two
Spaceship Three
So who thinks they are willing to go on this then?
Dangers and opinions?
Sitting with Paris Hilton up there you have no where to run.
I have £10 William Shatner commits suicide because he can't handle Paris.
Good Luck to Virgin definately though IMO. It would be a good step in easyily accessable Space Travel.
Virgin Galactic Site: http://www.virgingalactic.com/
Most of it taken from wikipedia, I just let you all know of it and put it into readable format
Was really interested and thought I'd share a bit with BF2s if anyone hadn't heard of it.
Searched by the way.
And here we go...
We had Virgin flights, Virgin Trains and even Virgin Money.
Richard Branson is well known for breaking records, and he has another one set with:
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic is a company within Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which plans to offer sub-orbital spaceflights and later orbital spaceflights to the paying public.
Development of SpaceShipTwo
After talks throughout 2004, on September 24, 2004 Virgin Galactic signed a deal worth up to US$21 million with Mojave Aerospace Ventures to license the patents behind the Tier One project for purposes of space tourism. The deal was announced by Branson and Burt Rutan on September 27, 2004 at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London. The initial plan is for Rutan to design and build five suborbital tourist craft based on a scaled-up version of SpaceShipOne. Construction began in 2005, with twelve to eighteen months of intensive testing (comprising at least 50-100 test flights) planned. Actual spaceflights for ordinary citizens are expected to begin on the SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise in Upham, New Mexico soon after. It is unknown whether a recent explosion which took place at Scaled Composites will affect the date of the maiden flight. Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites presented their SpaceShip Two on January 23, 2008. The required 50 test flights are scheduled to begin in June of 2008.
General overview of the spacecraft flights
It is planned that the spacecraft are to be robust and affordable enough to take paying passengers. The craft is projected to be a six passenger, two pilot craft. It is planned to make suborbital flights, with a short period of weightlessness. The time from liftoff of the White Knight II booster carrying SpaceShipTwo until the touchdown of SpaceShipTwo after the suborbital flight will be about 2.5 hours. The suborbital flight itself will only be a small fraction of that time. The weightlessness will last approximately 6 minutes. Passengers will be able to release themselves from their seats during these 6 minutes and float around the cabin.
Bookings
Although the initial deposit is set to be $200,000 for the first 100 to fly, the next 400 will pay a deposit between $100,000 and $175,000; all passengers after that will pay a deposit of only $20,000 each.
Among those reported to have told Branson that they wished to be among the first to fly on the spacecraft are actor William Shatner, designer Philippe Starck, The Panic Channel guitarist Dave Navarro, Alien star Sigourney Weaver, Hollywood director Bryan Singer, Musician Moby, socialite Paris Hilton, and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking (who on January 8, 2007 announced plans to take a sub-orbital flight in 2009). Also, Richard Branson himself and some of his family members will be launched on the VSS Enterprise's first commercial flight in 2009, before everyone else. In 2006, Richard Branson offered actor William Shatner a free ride on the inaugural space launch in 2008, saving Shatner $200,000; however, Shatner turned it down, and said, "I do want to go up but I need guarantees I'll definitely come back". In addition, other celebrities such as Patrick Stewart have expressed serious doubts about flying into space. In March 2005, Doug Ramsberg, a native of Northglenn, Colorado, won a free trip to suborbital space aboard Virgin Galactic, from a Volvo sweepstakes sponsored by Virgin. In September 2006, Alan Watts, a British businessman, indicated that he was able to redeem 2,000,000 frequent flyer miles for a ticket aboard a 2009 Virgin Galactic space flight.
Commercial Introduction
The design of the vehicle was revealed to the press in January 2008, with the statement that the vehicle itself was around 60% complete.
In August 2005, the president of space tourism company Virgin Galactic stated that if the upcoming suborbital service with SpaceShipTwo is successful, the follow-up SpaceShipThree will be an orbital craft.
On 28 September 2006, Sir Richard Branson unveiled a mock-up of the SpaceShipTwo at the NextFest exposition, held in the Javits Convention Center in New York.
Training began on the 3rd of December 2007.
Spaceship One
Spaceship Two
Spaceship Three
So who thinks they are willing to go on this then?
Dangers and opinions?
Sitting with Paris Hilton up there you have no where to run.
I have £10 William Shatner commits suicide because he can't handle Paris.
Good Luck to Virgin definately though IMO. It would be a good step in easyily accessable Space Travel.
Virgin Galactic Site: http://www.virgingalactic.com/
Most of it taken from wikipedia, I just let you all know of it and put it into readable format
