Sir Richard takes Virgin into Space

quizdog writes "The latest issue of Wired has a story on Sir Richard Branson and the history of the Virgin Empire, focusing on his latest venture of partnering with Scaled Composites and Burt Rutan to bring the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne hybrid rocket technology to the point where paying passengers can slip those 'surly bonds' of the atmosphere. Starting at just $200,000 a pop - any chance of a volume discount?" We first mentioned this a while back, but Wired's coverage is nice to see as well.

Boooooring

[Reality Master 101]

Just feel the need to point out once again that this is not space travel, as far as I'm concerned.

Space travel is controlled space travel. That means travelling into space, establishing a controlled orbit, and then a controlled descent back to earth. That's space travel.

The Wright Brother's big advance was controlled, powered flight. Lots of people could shoot a projectile from one end of the field to the other, which is all (effectively) that was accomplished by Burt Rutan.

I don't want to be a big, wet blanket here, and I don't want to say nothing has been accomplished; it was a necessary first step. But it ain't space travel. Orbital insertions are two orders of magnitude harder.

I don't want marketing, I want real space travel, and that requires being a little harsh on all the marketing that surrounds this.

Costs in perspective

[FleaPlus]

From the article:

But look at the upside. The total price tag [for Virgin Galactic] is half the cost of a single Airbus A340-600 - and Virgin Atlantic ordered 26 of those last summer. In return, Branson gets bragging rights to one of the cooler breakthroughs of the early 21st century, with rocket-powered marketing opportunities that could fuel excitement - and sales - in his entire 200-company holding group.

People often complain about how much stuff like this supposedly costs, but it's interesting to see what a small amount it is compared to how much is typically thrown around in the airline industry. The marketing value alone is probably worth the cost of the fleet.

Re:Where can I buy a ticket?

[gl4ss]

you do realise that there's quite a difference between a stay at the orbit and a quick leap up and coming down instantly?

Re:Costs in perspective

[Rei]

Yeah, and with good maintainance you'll get ~40,000 takeoff and landing cycles with that A340-600, and it usually carries around 380 passengers. You do the math.

The article is right, though - look at all the exposure it's gotten Virgin on Slashdot alone ;) All he did was fund a small venture with relatively moderate accomplishments, and he gets two articles a week for the next two years. ;)

Re:Boooooring

[Telastyn]

No offense to you, or the Brothers, but from everything I've read of that "flight" it wasn't much different from shooting Rutan's bird in a large arc...

Things will improve, in a fairly similar way I'd imagine.

Re:Boooooring

[brucehoult]

Orbital insertions are two orders of magnitude harder.

No, orbital insertions require nearly 10 times the speed (or 100 times more energy). That doesn't mean that they are 100 times harder, and certainly not 100 times more expensive.

Getting out of the atmosphere is the hard part. Once you're in vacuum all you need to do is burn more fuel, for longer. That's easy, and fuel is cheap. And manage the reentry, which we also know how to do.

Yes, this is jus a first step, but it's a lot further towards going orbital than you seem to think.

And once you're in orbit ... you're halfway to *anywhere* :-)

The Wright Brother's big advance was controlled, powered flight.

Actually, it was mostly the "controlled" part. They flew gliders before they flew powered aircraft, and they went back to gliders afterwards and had ten and thirty minute glider flights before they ever flew for that long in a powered aircraft.

One of Burt Rutan's big accomplishments with SS1 is in fact a way to safely control the reentry with the "feathering" tail.