Virgin Galactic

vanman · 11-10-2010, 23:28

Virgin Galactic's spaceship makes solo flight

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11511604

Quote:

Enterprise will soon be taking people prepared to pay $200,000 (Â£126,000) on short hops above the atmosphere.

OH! how the other half lives.
i will have two tickets please

danielf · 11-10-2010, 23:50

It sounds very interesting. However:

Quote:

The spaceship was carried to an altitude of 45,000ft (13,700m) by an aeroplane and then dropped to glide back to the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Enterprise will soon be taking people prepared to pay $200,000 (Â£126,000) on short hops above the atmosphere.

I thought the point was to go beyond cruising altitude for airliners. The idea is to carry it to cruising altitude, release it, and then engage the 'warp drive' to get it to proper altitude. Not to 'be dropped and glide back to earth'. Rather sloppy reporting from the Beeb me thinks.

TheNorm · 12-10-2010, 09:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by danielf

...I thought the point was to go beyond cruising altitude for airliners. ...

Yes, that is the point. This was a test flight (one of many).

**Chris** · 12-10-2010, 09:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by danielf

I thought the point was to go beyond cruising altitude for airliners. The idea is to carry it to cruising altitude, release it, and then engage the 'warp drive' to get it to proper altitude. Not to 'be dropped and glide back to earth'. Rather sloppy reporting from the Beeb me thinks.

The BBC is accurate. This was the VSS Enterprise's first test flight. She has to prove she can walk before they let her run.

---------- Post added at 10:54 ---------- Previous post was at 10:50 ----------

I was struck, while watching this, of the similarities with the early glide tests performed by another starship Enterprise ... in this case, the first NASA space shuttle, which they hoofed into the skies on the back of a 747 a number of times in the late 70s to perform glide tests.

How sad that, over 30 years later, the USA is on the brink of losing its independent human spaceflight capability altogether. I know the cold war is over, but surely Kennedy would be spinning in his grave at the thought of American astronauts being forced to buy passage in Russian Soyuz capsules.

Pauls9 · 12-10-2010, 10:00

"Short hops above the atmosphere" by "Virgin Galactic"

The company name seems to have come from a marketing crystal ball, methinks.

Still, sounds like fun.

I remember the first NASA Enterprise test landing - like a "flying brick". An impressive sight.

danielf · 12-10-2010, 10:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

The BBC is accurate. This was the VSS Enterprise's first test flight. She has to prove she can walk before they let her run.

True. However, the following:

Quote:

Enterprise will soon be taking people prepared to pay $200,000 (Â£126,000) on short hops above the atmosphere.

Seemed rather premature to me, as this was a flight testing what's is probably the easiest part of the exercise. It'll probably be quite a while before they will be taking on passengers.

Kymmy · 12-10-2010, 10:04

I remember seeing one of the shuttles when it visited the UK, we were visiting England for a few months (so ended up in a local school in Manchester) when we were all ushered outside to see this B747 with a shuttle on the back flying overhead.. That would have been about 1983/4

**Chris** · 12-10-2010, 10:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pauls9

I remember the first NASA Enterprise test landing - like a "flying brick". An impressive sight.

I still love to watch Shuttle landings now ... they come in so steep and fast, you must have to have nerves of steel to even sit in the cockpit of one of them.

TheNorm · 12-10-2010, 11:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

.... they come in so steep and fast,...

And the pilot only gets one chance to land her!

D_Skids · 12-10-2010, 11:51

Quote: "The British billionaire behind the project, Sir Richard Branson, was on hand to witness the drop test"

Its not like he is going to say 'I wont bother watching, let me know how it goes'

Hom3r · 12-10-2010, 16:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

I remember seeing one of the shuttles when it visited the UK, we were visiting England for a few months (so ended up in a local school in Manchester) when we were all ushered outside to see this B747 with a shuttle on the back flying overhead.. That would have been about 1983/4

Back in June 1983, the Space Shuttle Enterprise landed Stansted airport, the 747 carrying it flew over my house, but at that time I had no camera.

So my Mum, Dad, Sister, me & my best friend jumped in the car and drove to Stansted it took over 3 hours (normally 30 mins) to get there, some farmer had made a path across one of his field do that people could get into the back gate of the airport.

I was one of the best sight of my then life (I was 14), later seeing one on the launch pad ate the Cape bettered it.

---------- Post added at 17:24 ---------- Previous post was at 17:22 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

I still love to watch Shuttle landings now ... they come in so steep and fast, you must have to have nerves of steel to even sit in the cockpit of one of them.

When I went to Florida I was there when a shuttle landed, we heard the sonic boom, and the 2-way between the shuttle & ground control.