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The Russian space tourism program is not commercial at all.

If anything, it's a system of legal bribery: an individual gives money to a government to receive special treatment that is not offered to ordinary citizens.

And as another poster said, Virgin Galactic, which is an actual commercial venture, will be launching from New Mexico, USA. Which would put it squarely within the jurisdiction of the FAA.

I haven't heard anything about science in his statement on the topic; merely flag-waving.

I have, but not from GW, who isn't a scientist anyway. Although Steven Hawking would disagree about going to Mars (or the moon), there is some logic to going back to the moon, if we ever expect to do hard core space exploration. We will need a place to launch from, and the moon fits the ticket. It is close enough that we can supply it and rescue from it (remember, we will have many more space crafts at that time). It is also close enough that we can more afford to have crews there. Also, it is easier to capture people's imaginations (and tax dollars) about a station on the moon, especially if it can be seen with a telescope.

It has 1/6th of the earth's gravity, so it will be easier to launch from, and there may be enough raw materials on the moon to use for fuel to begin with, reducing the amount of fuel we have to send to start with. It is the closest and safest place to test theories about space travel, which is not a safe business to begin with. There *IS* commercial potential as well. If commercial space travel seems far fetched, ask Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, or Sir Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Galactic, who is investing heavily in the concept of commercial space travel.

I'm not saying this is the best way (because I don't know...), but there is a fair amount of logic *IF* we ever expect to have regular space travel, more than once or twice a year beyond our own planet. Personally, I can't think of a better way for the science communities of all countries to get together, and every country could participate, even if in some small way.

Many people thought JFK was out of his mind for thinking we could go to the moon before 1970, but you don't hear about them any more since we actually did it.

To the people asking about the reusability of a craft that's being put on display...

SpaceShip One was the testing prototype. The production models are already being built, for Virgin Galactic.

Yeah, that's right. A real company, run by someone who owns a real world-wide airline, will be using these babies for (near-) space tourism.

let's get private enterprise into the space race. Granted, Virgin Galactic are already there, but here's a revolutionary plan: scrap NASA and the federal space agnecy. Fulfill the obligations to the ISS and other programs, and then direct NASA's budget to federal subsidies for private enterprise. There must be thousands of businesses that want room on zero-gravity flights or orbital labs, and thousands of tourists who'd be willing to pay for an orbit round the earth. A subsidy to get things kick-started may be just what's needed.

Well they've already got Google Earth and taken the moon.

Soooo taking on the world is nothing... I'm waiting for Google Universe(TM) to come out so we can get Open Standards Space Travel.

There being:

- Virgin Galactic?
- Scaled Composites?
- just any place in orbit?

Considering your poor Googling skills though, I imagine you couldn't get a job there, despite the short corporate ladder.

I'd give very, very serious thoughts to trading both nuts to work in his shop.

In case you were serious, both Scaled and Virgin Galactic are hiring, as are Blue Origin, Bigelow Aerospace, and SpaceX:

http://www.scaled.com/careers/
http://www.virgingalactic.com/jobs.asp
http://www.blueorigin.com/jobs.htm
http://www.spacex.com/index.html?section=careers&c ontent=http%3A//www.spacex.com/careers.php
http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/employment.html

Try Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic

It's $100 million. But don't forget, the $200,000 trip in space is very short.

From Virgin Galactic site: After these precious minutes soaking up the thrill of space, you will start your return to earth.

Let assume it is 20 minutes flight in space (which is more than resonable amount of time for SpaceShip One.)

200,000 / 20 = 10,000 dollars per minutes.

The trip around the moon usually take about a week (assuming 3 days to moon, 1 day in orbits, 3 days back to Earth).

100,000,000 / ( 7 * 24 * 60 ) = 9,920.63492

So, that mean the $100 million trip around the moon is about $80 a minute cheaper than the $200,000 trip into Earth's orbit. The moon trip seem to be a damn good deal to me compared to Virgin Galactic's trip to the Earth's orbit.

Actually I thought I'd clarify things a bit more than my last post "What do we think the experience of sub-orbital space tourism with Virgin Galactic will be like?"

Yeah, but if Branson goes, we all know how he'll be getting there. At least he'll be getting a return on his $100M investment.

You eliminate a large chunk of the paperwork when a sig on the dotted line passes the logistics to someone else

I'm thinking I read somewhere Richard Branson said something like $1,000,000 for his package.

The ticket price for Virgin Galactic (Richard Branson's service) is US$200,000.

http://www.virgingalactic.com/en/when.asp

Virgin Galactic was founded sometime last year.

http://www.virgingalactic.com/en/

Unless space travel gets REALLY cheap, I don't think anyone but the wealthy will be able to actually go into space.

You may have noticed a little project called SpaceShipOne, and Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic. They got quite a bit of coverage a few months back (and in the real press as well, not just on here).

There intent (at least in part) is to make it really cheap.

Richard Branson wouldn't hesitate to hire them, not just for their experience but also for the PR value it would have.

It seems that Branson already has, or at least will in the near future. From virgingalactic.com:

Every morning you could be ferried by helicopter to the training base and spaceport where you might undergo six days of medical preparation, G-Tolerance training, talking to space experts about how to get the most from your experience, fly the simulator and in the evenings dine with astronauts and guest speakers.

Virgin Galactic's web site has a new computer-generated
video available, which shows the full flight profile of the Virgin
Galactic craft. It's available for streaming at the bottom of this
page:

http://www.virgingalactic.com/news.asp

I took the liberty of capturing just about all the key frames from the
video, and posting them on the web:

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~neilh/virgingalactic/

The most interesting images are seen right after the question "What
Next?" flashes on the screen. These are images of what appear to be a
Virgin Galactic space station, with a SpaceShipOne-style craft docked.
Of course, they're probably complete vapourware for now, but they
certainly look interesting:

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~neilh/virgingalactic/0 0002175.png
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~neilh/virgingalactic/0 0002215.png
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~neilh/virgingalactic/0 0002260.png

I've been told that these some of these images also appeared on the Discovery Channel's Black Sky: The Race for Space DVD, with descriptions from Burt Rutan.

Below is a relevant story I submitted a few days ago, which was unfortunately rejected. I might try submitting it (or a related story) again soon, and would appreciate any tips on how I could improve the chances of the submission being accepted (besides, you know, tossing in random comments about Linux/SCO/Doom3):

An international team led by Johns Hopkins University astronomers have proposed an alternative to sending a robotic or manned repair mission to the ailing Hubble Space Telescope. Their proposal is to build a new Hubble Origins Probe, reusing the Hubble design but using lighter and more cost-effective technologies. The probe would include instruments currently waiting to be installed on Hubble, as well as a Japanese-built imager which 'will allow scientists to map the heavens more than 20 times faster than even a refurbished Hubble Space Telescope could.' It would take an estimated 65 months and $1 billion to build, approximately the same cost as a robotic service mission.

On that note, here's another rejected space-related submission which I probably won't be trying to submit again. Someone else is more than welcome to try submitting it, though.

As reported in Space Race News, this Sunday Volvo will be airing a Super Bowl ad comparing one of their new cars to a rocket blasting off into space. The release says, 'At the commercial's end, the astronaut removes his helmet, is none other than Virgin Group chairman Sir Richard Branson, as the ship will be branded Virgin Galactic, with actual takeoffs scheduled for 2007.' Volvo will tout Boldlygo.com in the ad, a web site which will allow visitors to sign up for a chance to be the first passenger on Burt Rutan's SpaceShipTwo.

Have you not heard? Sir Richard Branson has signed Rutan up to make him some space planes, in his latest venture: Virgin Galactic
Stories:
Virgin Atlantic Licensing SpaceShipOne (27/09/04)
Sir Richard takes Virgin into Space (10/01/05)
Yahoo: 2004, The Year Space Tourism Finally Took Off

Plus, Armadillo Aerospace don't seem to have lost all hope yet either - Almost ready (06/01/05)

They plan to accept deposits and about 2 years before flights begin. If you want to sign up for an early flight, register on their website and they will send you an email when early reservations begin.

http://www.virgingalactic.com/when.asp
http://www.virgingalactic.com/when.asp

In other words, you want to see Virgin Galactic get going.

And I'm also certian that the US didn't just complete the first non-government manned space flight and doesn't have billions of dollars going to develop private space flight.

Actually, the Virgin group of companies is British...

And I'm also certian that the US didn't just complete the first non-government manned space flight and doesn't have billions of dollars going to develop private space flight.

Virgin is a British company, not a USA company.

And I'm also certian that the US didn't just complete the first non-government manned space flight and doesn't have billions of dollars going to develop private space flight.

Give me a break.

China is emerging as an ecenomic powerhouse, and it looks like it will continue down that path, provided their government doesn't screw up. However please don't pretend like all good things come from China. I gave just a small list of the US companies that produce advanced hardware, including what drives almost all the devices you listed. Your MP3 player may be built in China but it's usually using TI DSPs and AD opamps.

You know it's perfectly possible for China AND the US to be economic powers, and for both to benefit from trade with each other.

It's about time an American leader took the reins and firmly directed everyone's eyes at their feet rather than the stars. How dare we run around sending up multi-million dollar spacecraft when there are health care programs and social security to complain about and whine over?

After all, there's clearly no future in space.

Hmm, looking at the picture on there, it seems that the craft has already overshot the runway and appears to be at quite an alarming attitude

http://www.virgingalactic.com/contact.html

Ah well, his boat sank and the balloon burst; mommy, I'm afraid :)

Don't worry.... Richard Branson will save the save with Virgin Galactic

I like the name Virgin is choosing for their fleet:

"Virgin Galactic"... How cool is that?

Linky: virgingalactic.com

So you are saying that the X-prize that generated SS1 was foolish? But it has worked!

Business will need to be convinced that they can make a profit for their investment.

Apparently you missed the announcement. Funnily enough, a few days ago, Branson just announced that he had agree to pay for the R&D of the passenger version of SpaceShipOne, Virgin Galactic.

Looks like the X-prize has worked. That's exactly the situation that it was intended to create. The whole point is to improve the confidence factor for businesses to invest in space tourism. If suborbital is even halfway successful, orbital should be right behind it.

In some ways it is cheaper than suborbital- you get orders of magnitude more zero-gravity time per dollar.

After the announcement of the deal with Richard Branson (http://www.virgingalactic.com/,) Rutan said he would wait for the first flight of Virgin Galactic before he flies on it.

I will say that the guys trying to sell tickets are depending on the fact that this general airframe, or something very similar, is going to be certified for a production run of small spacecraft with full FAA commercial certification. So I think the experimental status will soon be changed, but that won't happen by Monday, that is for certain.

I do know Paul Allen and Burt Rutan were suggesting strongly that they may be passengers in the final flight. Wheither this happens or not I bet will depend largely on the investigation of what caused the roll in the last flight.

The 40+ flight hours of testing I think has already been made, at least as far as general typical high-altitude (10,000 + feet) flight manuvers are concerned and landing tests. Obviously there have only been two other flights into space, so extream high altitude testing has been rather limited. What the FAA says about that is another story. That this is under so much media scrutiny I think the FAA is going to bend over backwards to see certification occurs, unless there is some serious egg in the face of Scaled Composites. (Like having SSO crash & burn on Monday).

Now available...

Flights on our SpaceShipFiftySeven craft! Special features include end of burn rotational inertia demonstration and inertia experiments!

Contact Virgin Galactic to book your flight eXperience today! www.virgingalactic.com

Or call 1-661-824-4174

jason

The guys from da Vinci have always said that the real money is in the post X-Prize contracts (i.e. Virgin Galactic). Having the additional prizes would help keep the focus of the design teams, the money of the sponsors, and the media's attention on the race.

Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic might win it now they have signed with Mojave Aerospace Ventures LLC.

the announcement is step 0. step 1 involves clearing all of the government obstacles. but according to popular /. opinion, that is the one thing that sir branson is obviously quite good at.

if they succeed with step 1, then us geeks can get excited in earnest. step 2 will be development and testing. should be no problem given the monies involved. then of course, in step 3 we'll see many, very rich people fulfilling their lifelong dreams. the rest of us will watch with unbridled envy.

but i fear that step 4 will be sudden bankruptcy, when they quickly exhaust the very small number of adventurers rich enough to afford the still hideously expensive ticket.

This is the best news I've heard all year!

Since 7 AM, I feel like I'm living a book by Arthur C. Clarke. I've been waiting for this since I was a kid. I've just been repeating the company name over and over in my head:

Virgin Galactic Spacelines.

Wow.

Oh - and it seems they have a website...be sure to check it out!