Richard Branson Says He’s Going to Send People Into Space by Christmas

[Rob Lister]

Richard Branson Says He’s Going to Send People Into Space by Christmas

Billionaire Richard Branson really, really wants you to believe he’s going to send people to space—and soon. In a new interview with CNN, the Virgin Group founder now says he’s “reasonably confident” his spaceflight company can beat out competitors like Blue Origin and SpaceX with crewed trips to space before Christmas.

https://gizmodo.com/richard-branson-say ... 1830794784

These folks are paying $200K to ride up, touch 'space', and ride back down.

google tells me 535 people have 'gone to space', suborbital, orbital, etc.

google tells me 18 people have died trying.

that's 3.4%

this agrees nicely with this dataset of all launch failures
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/logsum.html

So if I had a spare $200K, I'd pay that much not to go. At least until the risk is a couple of orders of magnitude less. Like less than dying in an auto accident (0.017%). So would Christa McAuliffe, in retrospect. I'd feel differently if there was some good reason for going. Christa is uncertain.

So, the question before you is: Are you fucking nuts!

[ed]

How about who we would pay for to take the ride?

[xouper]

So, the question before you is: Are you fucking nuts!

No.

But you, clearly, are a fucking sissy.

Stay home. The streets are a dangerous place: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=38050

Stay off the golf course.

Get rid of all sharp objects in your house.

Sissy.

https://www.skydivenewengland.com/wp-co ... 00x720.jpg

[Anaxagoras]

I guess they did it.

[Anaxagoras]

I guess not yet, this appears to have been a dry run. There were two pilots on board and a mannequin and some "payloads" but not, as yet, live passengers.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.scroll ... e-of-space

[Rob Lister]

Maybe not. They only went to 58 miles.

100km (62.13) is the 'accepted' edge according to

[T]he Kármán line, an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) above sea level, is conventionally used as the start of outer space in space treaties and for aerospace records keeping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space
If I were an idiot paying passenger with some sort of death wish, I'd sue.

[Anaxagoras]

The article says that "some agencies" consider 50 miles to be the edge of space. I don't know or really care myself. Both appear to be arbitrarily selected round numbers.

ETA:

The Kármán line, or Karman line, is an attempt to define a boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.[2] This is important for legal and regulatory measures; aircraft and spacecraft fall under different jurisdictions and are subject to different treaties.

The Fédération aéronautique internationale (FAI), which is an international standard-setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics, defines the Kármán line as the altitude of 100 kilometres (62 miles; 330,000 feet) above Earth's sea level. Other organizations do not use this definition. For instance, the US Air Force and NASA defines the limit to be 50 miles (80 kilometres) above sea level for purposes of awarding personel with outer space badges.[3] There is no international law defining the edge of space, and therefore the limit of national airspace, and the US is resisting regulatory movement on this front.[4]

The line is named after Theodore von Kármán (1881–1963), a Hungarian American engineer and physicist, who was active primarily in aeronautics and astronautics. He was the first person to calculate at which altitude the atmosphere becomes too thin to support aeronautical flight, and arrived at 83.6 km (51.9 mi) himself.[5] The reason is that a vehicle at this altitude would have to travel faster than orbital velocity to derive sufficient aerodynamic lift to support itself.[6] The line is approximately at the turbopause, above which atmospheric gasses are not well-mixed. The mesopause atmospheric temperature minimum has been measured to vary from 85 to 100 km, which places the line at or near the bottom of the thermosphere.

[WildCat]

That's a lot of money for a 125 mile round trip.

[xouper]

That's a lot of money for a 125 mile round trip.

Perhaps it’s the ultimate roller coaster ride for rich people.

If I had that much spare change in my pocket, I’d go.

[Pyrrho]

Are we there yet

[Doctor X]

Don't make me turn this around.

--J.D.

[Anaxagoras]

So did he do it?

[Bruce]

It's a very short and very expensive vacation to where there is no water, no food, no air, no entertainment, no Wifi, and no booze. It's even worse than a Disney World vacation, except for maybe that there are also no underpaid actors in costumes trying to amuse you and no hawkish vendors trying to extract more money from you. Zero stars.

[xouper]

It's a very short and very expensive vacation to where there is no water, no food, no air, no entertainment, no Wifi, and no booze. It's even worse than a Disney World vacation, except for maybe that there are also no underpaid actors in costumes trying to amuse you and no hawkish vendors trying to extract more money from you. Zero stars.

I'm thinking it should get at least one star for "Wow, that was fucking awesome!"

[xouper]

So did he do it?

He said he would send people into space before Christmas, and he did that.

He did not say he would send paying passengers before Christmas.

Richard Branson says Virgin Galactic will take people to space before Christmas

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business
Updated 4:33 PM ET, Fri November 30, 2018

Miami (CNN Business) Richard Branson says Virgin Galactic is on the verge of a major achievement: It will send astronauts into space by Christmas.

The billionaire entrepreneur told CNN Business' Rachel Crane this week he is "pretty confident" his space tourism venture can achieve its milestone by the end of the year.

. . . The first few trips to space will be flown by test pilots without anyone else on board. Branson says he will be the first passenger. Eventually, paying tourists will also make the trip.

"I'm not allowed up until the [test pilots] have broken it in a few times, first," he said. "I would love to have gone on this very [first] flight, but [pilots] are incredibly brave people."

So far, SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity has only made one flight into space on December 13. I don't know when the next one is scheduled.

https://www.virgingalactic.com/

Previously, SpaceShipOne made three flights into space in 2004, reaching an altitude of over 100 kilometers and winning the Ansari X Prize for first private manned spaceflight.

[gnome]

For someone who has rockets available, getting people into space isn't terribly difficult. It's when they start expecting you to obtain their consent first, and return them safely afterwards, that it gets challenging.