Virgin Galactic to Launch from Scottish Base?

Lancey writes "The BBC reports that Richard Branson wants to launch Virgin Galactic space flights from a Royal Air Force base in Moray, Scotland, as early as 2010." From the article: "We are designing it so that we will be able to tour it around the world. So we will have a main base in New Mexico and we are looking at three bases outside there to be able to operate from."

What about the equator?

[LotsOfPhil]

I thought that it was better to launch things from the equator. Something about angular momentum, maybe? This is (I thought) why the ESA launches from Equatorial Guinea, or some such.

Re:What about the equator?

[Anonymous Coward]

ESA launches from French Guiana. Actually.

Re:What about the equator?

[tgd]

Thats only if you're going to try to get into orbit easily.

They're not trying to get into orbit.

Re:What about the equator?

[Scrameustache]

I thought that it was better to launch things from the equator. Something about angular momentum, maybe?

If you want to get in, or escape earth orbit, yes.
But Virgin Galactic only goes to the edge of "space" and then falls right back down.

Re:What about the equator?

[badfish99]

... and then falls right back down.

Yes, that sounds about right. It's what I'd expect to happen to a spaceship run by the same company that runs Virgin trains.

Re:What about the equator?

[Rincewind42]

The equator is useful for launching. But what goes up must come down. You need to land as well as take off. There are rumors that NASA designated Machrihanish airport as an emergency landing site for the Shuttle. Though never used for that purpose to date. Machrihanish is over 3km long and remote from populations. Lossiemouth would have similar advantages with the addition of up to date modern facilities.

Contrary to popular conceptions, the North East of Scotland actually enjoys quite good weather most of

SpaceShipTwo

[SYSS Mouse]

so... what is the news about SS2? (and possiblt SS3)

Re:SpaceShipTwo

[fireman sam]

The Sony Space Station 2 was a success, but the Sony Space Station 3 will be overly expensive for the hardware and the games.

The old formula...

[zeropointburn]

Anyone else feel like Branson's making headway on those dastardly ellipses? A couple of spaceports would sure go a long way for MY world domination schemes...

Lead - engineer

[thrill12]

... will probably be Scotty:
"Aye Cap'n Branson, but she can't take much more !"

Re:Lead - engineer

[turgid]

..."Of these English tourists!"

/me ducks.

I hope their ship is rainproof

[aadvancedGIR]

With 450+ days of rain each year up there, a shuttle could never do that.
If you add the latitude consideration and the possibility to organize flights for tourists, Spain or Moroco would seem a better idea.

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[Anonymous Coward]

What planet are you from that has 450 days per year?

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[Anonymous Coward]

You've never been to Scotland, have you?

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[tehgimpness]

What planet are you from that has 450 days per year?

It's part of an EU directive to ensure effective and fair distribution of rainfall in the europe. Each country has a number of rainfall tokens which are spent on rainfall per annum. Scotland import the rainfall by accepting rainfall tokens from other european countries to ensure that the rainfall exporters have more sunshine throughout the year. Italy and Greece are europes chief exporters. The UK and Poland are nett importers. England and Wales have 279 days of rainfall a year and have accepted 23 'grey skies and light showers' and 9 'fog' days from mainland europe in return for preferential North Sea fishing areas.

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[Wizard Drongo]

The truly sad thing is, it takes one a minute or so to digest the above comment and realise it is in fact a joke and not actually true. That's how bad the EU can be. We're talking about the drones that actually put down on the books a statue on how bendy a banana has to be before it's eligible to be sold.

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[ichigo 2.0]

I think it's pretty obviously a joke, doesn't even take a moment to "digest". While there are statutes (statue is probably not the word you were looking for) that describe the maximum curvature (among other attributes) bananas can have and still be sold as bananas, it really isn't as silly as you make it sound; would you want to order a ton of A-class bananas only to wind up with a truckload of fucked up mutant banana lookalikes that noone will buy? Having minimal quality standards isn't a bad thing IMO, YM

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[Wizard Drongo]

Whoops, my bad. My standing as a slashdot grammar Nazi may suffer due to this, but I do avow that the misspelling in question is because my Apple iMac tangerine keyboard is a fair few years old, and whist I have a spiffy new MacBook, with a spiffy new keyboard on it, when at my desk, the old tangerine gets a hammering. Probably due for a replacement. Some of the hammers don't always connect, even if my fingers hit the key. You're right to a degree on the minimal standards. But the EU's bureaucracy is w

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[bannerman]

Your sig is missing the all important "one", as in "ZOMGWTFPWNKKTHNXBIBI!!!!111one!!!"

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[tehgimpness]

Your sig is missing the all important "one", as in "ZOMGWTFPWNKKTHNXBIBI!!!!111one!!!"

f!X0r3D11!!ELEVEN1!! Phew, thanks for pointing that out. I must have looked like a right idiot!

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[Petrushka]

What planet are you from that has 450 days per year?

You laugh, and justly, but just as a matter of interest, the year 46 BCE had -- well, not quite 450 days -- but ca. 445 days. (It was the year that the Romans transitioned from the chaotic old republican calendar to the shiny new Julian calendar. They got it wrong at first, mind you, having leap years every three years instead of four because of a misunderstanding, but they worked it out eventually.)

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[taskforce]

450 days of rain? In a 365 day year? Jeeze, that's only -85 days of sun a year!

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[smittyoneeach]

Frugal, no?

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[$rtbl_this]

Have you ever been to Scotland? It sounds like a conservative estimate to me!

Anyway, am I the only one who'd balk at taking a space flight from Scotland operated by a company that can barely run a train service out of there?

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[eriktown]

I believe that since the SS* series is launched from a carrier aircraft, rain and low-altitude cloud cover will not be an issue, because the carrier vehicle can simply ascend above the cloud deck prior to launching the spacecraft.

Re:I hope their ship is rainproof

[davidmcw]

Being from Scotland, I can assure you that it just feels like 450+ days of rain in a year.

Nothing to see...

[HaydnH]

Nothing to see here... no really! It's a broken link! Here's a working link to the article. [bbc.co.uk]

if its not scottish

[scottnews]

http://sounds.wavcentral.com/televis/snl/scottish_ crap.mp3 [wavcentral.com] its crap!

Strange headline

[biglig2]

The interesting thing is that he intends to launch in 2010, not so much that he's going to run it out of Scotland. I mean, he was likely to have at least one launch point in the UK if it was technically feasable, and it was never likely to be Heathrow. ;-)

Never

[JustOK]

Never underestimate the repulsive power of the Scottish and their hagis.

Lossiemouth is the perfect location!

[dnnrly]

I've been to good ol' Lossie. I think it's perfect! Takeoffs would occur over the bay which opens up to the North Sea. Lossiemouth itself isn't hugely populated but it does lie next door to the base. There is a housing estate right up to the fence on one side (with the local pub about 1 mile from the main entrance), all other sides are clear and the nearest large town is Elgin about 10 miles away.

As long as they are careful to take off and land over the water I can't see many problems at all.

Re:Lossiemouth is the perfect location!

[applemacmad]

Personally I wouldn't like a rocket taking off from across my garden fence (the base is on the other side of the road). Local pub? I would say there are at least 7!

Re:Lossiemouth is the perfect location!

[t_allardyce]

Its a plane not a rocket...

But...

[Clazzy]

Think of the poor haggis! The shock of a rocket launching could tip them over and they'll roll down the hills, killing thousands! This injustice cannot be allowed to happen!

Re:But...

[Filmcell-Keyrings]

Och! Ya greit ejit, a fully grown haggis is not much larger then a rugby ball, and wouldn't kill anyone as it rolled down a hill.

Re:But...

[Clazzy]

But thousands of haggis hunters will wait in glee as they roll down, making them easy prey. They could wipe the haggis population out entirely!

Re:But...

[Filmcell-Keyrings]

These days most haggis are farm reared. The wild haggis is protected under the Auchterturra Accord of 1987.

Deja vu

[suthers]

That's funny. I'm sure I remember writing http://skymania.blogspot.com/2006/06/hoots-mon-we- have-problem.html [blogspot.com]this story way back on June 9.

I live there!

[Criffer]

Or did. Nearly. Actually, I grew up in Buckie, which on a clear day, you can see Lossiemouth over the other end of the Spey Bay.

Re:I live there!

[palswim]

I grew up in Buckie, which on a clear day, you can see Lossiemouth

First you have 450+ days of rain in a year and now you tell me you have time for clear days, too?

Re:Nah, not Lossiemouth

[ksheff]

From the article:

"It has relatively little overflying by aircraft, there are not people on the ground who could get injured and RAF Lossiemouth is an ideal location."

Maybe Manston has too many people on the ground or too much air traffic around it?

Branson's already in space...

[fahrbot-bot]

Anyone seen Superman Returns? Sir Richard Branson has a cameo as one of the shuttle pilots. I almost didn't recognize him as the shots were brief, but my suspicions were confirmed by the credits.

I love Virgin

[QuantumG]

I think Richard Branson is an inspiration to all. But, and you knew there was a 'but', this venture is taking a very long time. Some of you may think 8 years is a reasonable amount of time to go from winning the X-Prize to offering rides to paying customers, but compare this to every other Virgin branded venture. Branson is renouned for entering existing markets quickly and offering superior service. The Virgin interest in suborbital flights is more similar to Branson's ballooning exploits than it is to

Re:I love Virgin

[mdfst13]

There are other alternatives to Virgin Galactic, e.g. http://www.blueorigin.com/index.html [blueorigin.com]