Slashdot Mirror
Virgin Atlantic Licensing SpaceShipOne
Tigerquoll writes "According to the Australian Broadcasting Commission, British airline magnate Richard Branson has announced a plan for the world's first commercial space flights and has signed a technology licensing deal with Mojave Aerospace Ventures - the US company behind SpaceShipOne. See scaled composites' media release and the Virgin Galactic website"
As we all know, when you ride a Virgin you boldly go where no man has gone before.
"Our press release was covered by Slashdot today! Perfect! Make sure our database guys delete all records received before October 1, because they're poor geeks who just want the brochure for free. Don't waste your phone calls on these freeloaders."
What's your damage, Heather?
The journey takes three hours, at about £33,000 an hour.
At that rate, I hope they've included some process to permenantly keep your eyelids open to maximise the amount of view you get.
Woohoo! *Finally* a use for all those damn Air Miles I've accumulated!
You must think in Russian.
Oh yeah? www.virginspacehotel.com, registered Jun 17, 1999.
At that time, they will have accrued enough cash and guts to build a hotel in orbit. They'll advertise the scenic view, but hint at the zero-G beds. When that wears off, there's the moon. By the time we get to Mars, we'll probably have the technology to get there fast enough and then the solar system's in our back yard. But not Europa. We'll attempt no landings there.
Money for nothing, pix for free
That is barely enough time for the in flight movie (apollo 13 maybe?) and one trip from the beverage lady.
The hell it is. Try Virgin vs GNER for a Scotland to London trip. Virgin is slower, less reliable and the rolling stock is a joke. Last time I was stupid enough to travel on a Beardy train the mysery was only releaved by the entertainment of watching the staff using a huge metal spike to lever the toilet door open to let someone out.
As for pricing restrictions, the train fair is already almost an order of magnitude greater than flying (80 quid Edinburgh to Nottingham return a few weeks ago, anywhere from 2.50 up for a single on EasyJet if I'd been organised enough to book, add in a local train journey from airport to Nottingham), so they are hardly having their prices nailed to the floor.
_O_
.|< The named which can be named is not the true named
"We apologise for the delay to the 11:20 Virgin Suborbital. This is due to... err... the wrong kind of space."
Sean Ellis
Follow OfQuack's antics on Twitter.
...Now they'll have to change the opening credits to "Enterprise" again :P
..or with the slashdot readership, riding a Virgin is probably about going where no sane woman would consider going at all...
Or even deity? Unless i'm mistaken and you're talking about a weight loss plan...