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Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipTwo 129

BoulderDad writes, "Richard Branson presented a mock-up of the new SpaceShipTwo in New York. From the article: 'Future passengers aboard Virgin Galactic spaceliners can look forward to cushioned reclining seats and lots of windows during suborbital flights aboard SpaceShipTwo, a concept interior of which was unveiled by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson Thursday.' The video is worth watching; the spaceport details are more concept than reality, but the depiction of the phases of space flight is very good."
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Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipTwo

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  • Orbit? (Score:5, Informative)

    by bobs666 ( 146801 ) on Thursday September 28, 2006 @02:41PM (#16234071)
    Its one thing to get to some altitude, and back.

    But when will private industry make it into orbit and back.
    You need that if you want to stay for more then free fall.

    Its the speed of orbit, and reentry from that speed, that makes this hard.

    A real space tourist will want to stay a while.

    As for several minutes of weightlessness, you can get
    that from conventional aircraft.
  • Re:Shotgun! (Score:4, Informative)

    by slagheap ( 734182 ) on Thursday September 28, 2006 @03:04PM (#16234591)

    I get the shotgun seat!

    You can have it.

    I saw Burt Rutan (the craft designer) talking at the Oshkosh EAA convention a couple months ago. He explained how they plan to allow exactly that. The typical SpaceShip 2 Flight will have 8 people on board... That's one Virgin pilot, and 7 "revenue" seats. 6 passengers will typically show up just a day or two before their flight for some brief training. The seventh guest will pay a lot more, and will arrive 2-3 months before the flight for extensive training. They will be the official co-pilot for their flight.

    I'm sure you will need to be a licensed pilot going in, so start working on that training now!

  • by zentinal ( 602572 ) on Thursday September 28, 2006 @03:41PM (#16235287) Homepage
    Since it seems the ravening hordes have slagged Space.com's servers, I permission from Popular Science to post a link to their SpaceShipTwo story on the Popular Science website [popsci.com].
  • Re:cargo (Score:3, Informative)

    by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Thursday September 28, 2006 @04:09PM (#16235827) Journal
    small rocket.; think of the pegasus launch system.
  • by FleaPlus ( 6935 ) * on Thursday September 28, 2006 @04:51PM (#16236675) Journal
    The linked article only shows the photos of a mockup of SS2's interior. The coverage over at Gizmodo includes some images from Virgin Galactic which show the conceptual design for the exterior of SpaceShipTwo:

    http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/first-image s-of-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-cabin-203802.php [gizmodo.com]

    One of the images compares the size of SpaceShipTwo [gizmodo.com] to other vehicles, such as SpaceShipOne, the Bell X-1, and a Boeing 747.
  • Re:Orbit? (Score:4, Informative)

    by RockClimbingFool ( 692426 ) on Thursday September 28, 2006 @04:56PM (#16236751)
    Project Mercury was designed to be scalable to orbital velocities and the reentry associated with it.

    Virgin Galactic's (Rutan's) method is not scalable to orbital velocities. It's not even new or unique.

    We have been launching small rockets off airplanes for decades now.

    There is no reason to take this step. It doesn't put them going towards orbit.

    It is Rutan and Co.'s marketing department that has convinced people this is a necessary step to the commercialization of space.

    All it is a scam to milk $250,000 people off those that can afford it and he used the X-prize as a form of advertising for it.

  • by X86Daddy ( 446356 ) on Thursday September 28, 2006 @05:57PM (#16237721) Journal
    The 1st zero-G porno is gonna rake it in.

    No need to use future tense...
    http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/movies/uranus_ experiment_000516.html [space.com] (safe for work link)
  • by pavon ( 30274 ) on Thursday September 28, 2006 @06:39PM (#16238293)
    You are right in correcting the parent - this is not an orbital technology, never will be, and was never intended to be. But the rest of you comment is completely uncalled for.

    We have been launching small rockets off airplanes for decades now.
    Great where can I get a ride on one - oh, only if I am one of a handful of jet pilots in the Air force or government space program.

    There is no reason to take this step.
    Sure there is - because it can and will be completed within the next decade, unlike the private man-to-orbit projects under way. It will also likely be much more affordable than the orbital trips, even when they do come to fruition. Bungee jumping will never scale to orbital velocities, but that does not make it worthless.

    All it is a scam to milk $250,000 people off those that can afford it ...
    Yeah, and damn that rafting company who scammed me out of $50 by providing a desired service in exchange for a mutually agreed upon sum. Dirty Capitalists.

    ...and he used the X-prize as a form of advertising for it.
    That was the whole point of the X-prize. It was never intended to go towards orbit, and the hope was that it would lead to a commercial venture. The people who provided the money for the X-prize don't feel cheated, and are very happy about Branson's deal with Rutan to develop it into profitable business.

    Oh, and you people bitching about the environmental impact need to get some perspective. There are thousands of flights across the world every day, and millions of vehicles being driven and thousands of coal plants spewing CO2 and soot. And you are worried about the pollution that one sub-orbital launch a week is going to do.

    Seriously, I am used to people on slashdot being critical jerks, but this thread is ridiculous. Rutan is an excellent high-performance plane designer, and rather than sitting around bitching about how he wished there were private alternatives to get into space, he took what knew and did something about it. In just a few more years he will be providing an opportunity to people that has never existed before, and which no one will match for many more years to come. You may not think it is worth the price, but thousands of other people do, and are more than willing to pay the $250,000 to get a glimpse of space. Sure I would prefer to see an orbital trip. But I will always be far more excited to see concrete progress in the present, no matter how small, than I will be to dream about vaporware.

"May your future be limited only by your dreams." -- Christa McAuliffe

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