Virgin Galactic....

[Dr Mordrid]

Virgin Galactic and the VSS Enterprise. Those are the new service and commercial spaceship Richard Branson's planning on.

He's contracting with Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites and Paul Allen's Mojave Aerospace Ventures for the hardware & systems. There are also preliminary plans for an orbital hotel.

ABC News story...

IF Rutan winse the X-Prize (schedule: 1st flight Sep. 29th & 2nd Oct. 4th) then this could get a big boost. We'll see...but it would be cool if they could make a go of it.

Dr. Mordrid

[Byock]

That would be cool!

[Marshmallowman]

So I shoiulkd start saving for a ticket now?

[KvHagedorn]

Well it's easy to see why she's a virgin... she's ugly as hell.

[lecter]

I'd love to be able to afford such a trip in my lifetime

[Dr Mordrid]

Virgin Glactic website;

http://www.virgingalactic.com/

If the beauty of a system follows efficient function then SpaceShipOne may be one of the prettiest birds around.

For starters the shuttlecock deceleration system and re-startable hybrid rocket engine are just too innovative to have come out of an anal retentive beauracracy like NASA.

Also in favor of Rutans approach is that the whole White Knight, SS1 and flight/launch support system came in on a budget that would just about pay for the nose gear of the Space Shuttle.

Dr. Mordrid

[leech]

Let's all hijack it and take it to Mars! That would be pretty cool to be able to fly on there, isn't it about 10,000 a ticket?

Leech

[Brian Ellis]

Over five years Virgin expects to create around 3000 astronauts and the price per seat on each flight, which will include at least three days of pre-flight training, are expected to start at around £115,000 ($190,000).

That's for cattle class. I wonder how much business class will cost

Who's for it?

[Paddy]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
Well it's easy to see why she's a virgin... she's ugly as hell.

Nice!

Brian: I'm game

[Umfriend]

Have to agree with KVH. Let's hope this is just some deranged artists' impression....

[Dr Mordrid]

The only part that's an artists impression is the red & white paint on the tail. The shape is exactly what SpaceShipOne looks like.

The tail stands up as part of its re-entry mode. It's a high-drag configuration that allows it to re-enter without as much heating up as "conventional" designs. In short it comes down like a shuttlecock instead of a rock.

SS1 flight profile

Photo gallery

Dr. Mordrid

[knirfie]

nice