Virgin Galactic Sub-Orbital

[Stephanie Belser]

Richard Branson said his first trip to space Sunday exceeded his long-standing expectations.

I don't get it, I really don't. First, he didn't make it above the Karman Line, so did he really make it into space *as it's defined nowadays)?

Second, what's the big deal about a suborbital flight? Branson made it less than half as high than did Alan Sherman, sixty years ago. And isn't this, in essence, just a far most costly "vomit comet", only with better views?

[Mark Horak]

I saw a funny comment about this on Twitter: "Nothing says tax the rich like a space race between billionaires."

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

I view the Bezos, Musk and Branson (Rutan) vehicles as pretty awesome examples of technology. Egos all, but the same with Alan Sherman (nee Shepard), Gordo, Gus and the whole crew.

[Ray Tackett]

Just another toy for the 1% to reinforce feelings of entitlement. I much prefer Warren Bugget's project to use 90% of his wealth for philanthropy.

[Russell Holton]

I saw a funny comment about this on Twitter: "Nothing says tax the rich like a space race between billionaires."

But consider where the money is going. I'd think quite a bit ends up domestically in salaries of people engineering and building things. I'd think it would be building a nice infrastructure that can be mobilized in case of a near-peer war.

[Stephanie Belser]

I view the Bezos, Musk and Branson (Rutan) vehicles as pretty awesome examples of technology. Egos all, but the same with Alan Sherman (nee Shepard), Gordo, Gus and the whole crew.

Bezos's capsule doesn't have a pilot, which makes it as advanced as the flight of Ham the Chimpanzee. Or, if you prefer, the capsule is "spam in a can".

[Steve Hguabmots]

Bezos's capsule doesn't have a pilot, which makes it as advanced as the flight of Ham the Chimpanzee. Or, if you prefer, the capsule is "spam in a can".

Stephanie,

You'd prefer they do nothing?

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

Stephanie,

You'd prefer they do nothing?

Many are longing for the old days of buggy whips.....

[Stephanie Belser]

You'd prefer they do nothing?

When you're a millionaire, you can hire somebody to build an airplane for you. When you're a billionaire, you can hire people to build a spacecraft for you. I see no difference, other than degree.

They're free to spend their money on what they want. But let's not pretend that they're advancing the state of the art. The uses for suborbital flights, other than tourism, are what, exactly?

(If they wanted to do something in aeronautics that might have an impact on other people's lives, they could have funded one of the new SST projects.)

[Steve Hguabmots]

Many are longing for the old days of buggy whips.....

Please elucidate....

I'm not a space geek, but I tuned in to watch. I don't quite get the shade shown toward rich guys who saw a market and made big bucks.

I'm headed to EAA in a couple of weeks. I haven't studied it extensively, but if the launch platform was there, I'd certainly go look. I think my thought would be a 'nice design by some GA geeks, not something conceived in a government lab'. Not sure it would be 'so what'.

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

Please elucidate....

I'm not a space geek, but I tuned in to watch. I don't quite get the shade shown toward rich guys who saw a market and made big bucks.

I'm headed to EAA in a couple of weeks. I haven't studied it extensively, but if the launch platform was there, I'd certainly go look. I think my thought would be a 'nice design by some GA geeks, not something conceived in a government lab'. Not sure it would be 'so what'.

What I'm saying is that some want the good old days of Merc, Gemini, Apollo....but things have moved on. Even if the rich guys lose money on this, I believe that they are moving the state of the art forward and for that I salute them.

I'd go to the launch platform too. Having worked directly with Richard for a bit years ago, I felt particular joy in his reaction to his flight.

[Reams Goodloe]

Well, what has been done so far by Blue Origin isn't that impressive, other than the fact that is has been done with private money, and that they have so far successfully reinvented the wheel.... ..resurrecting knowledge of space flight built and lost over the last 50 years. However, they do have plans to go much further, at least back to the moon, so that's kinda interesting. In the meantime, they are spending a lot of money here in my town, and putting paychecks into the hands of over 2000 folks locally. No harm in that, it seems... And, they are spending money on parts and sub-assemblies for final fabrication, keeping some of the local (and elsewhere) aerospace oriented machine shops going with some of their special project parts...

https://www.geekwire.com/2020/blue-o...quarters-kent/

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