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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"
How will be the insurance cost calculated ?
I mean, there are stats which help defining the cost of a plane travel insurance but there ain't such stats concerning commercial flights...
Trolling using another account since 2005.
If you look at the BBC article, the Virgin spacecraft design is to be called the VSS Enterprise!
" If it is a success, we want to move into orbital flights and then, possibly, even get a hotel up there"
-Sir Richard Branson
From bbc
http://efil.blogspot.com/
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!
The licensing deal with M.A.V. could be worth up to £14 million ($21.5 million) over the next fifteen years depending on the number of spaceships built by Virgin.
The development alone of the technology is predictably high:
It is expected that around £60 million ($100 million) will be invested in developing the new generation of spaceships and ground infrastructure required to operate a sub orbital space tourism experience.
The revenue for flights seems about what one would expect:
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).
So, given all of these numbers, doesn't $21M for a license seem low?
-erick
http://www.busyweather.com/
Only if you are completely unfamiliar with the way the words `stunt' and `publicity' can be arranged into a well known phrase or saying.
Beardie can't even run a worthwhile train company.
_O_
.|< The named which can be named is not the true named
"Let's just hope that the space-flights stimulate some competition, unlike Concorde, because then the next goal would quickly become 'lunar city'..."
Fortunately for you, the Japanese have been eying this industry for quite some time. And quite frankly, I'm putting my money on the culture that presently makes: The world's fastest super computer, the most reliable cars, the most advanced communication technology, etc...
These guys are in it to win and Virgin won't be able to charge $190K because the Japanese will be there offering $185K, or some other competitive number that would make it cheaper to fly vial JAL to Tokyo instead of Virgin to London.
I've dirtied my hands writing poetry, for the sake of seduction; that is, for the sake of a useful cause. --Dostoevsky
If so, he plans pretty far in advance:
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.