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SpaceShipThree to be Orbital Spacecraft

Posted by samzenpus on from the space-class-flight dept.

FleaPlus writes "The president of spaceflight company Virgin Galactic has recently stated that if the upcoming suborbital service with SpaceShipTwo is successful, the follow-up SpaceShipThree will be an orbital craft. Although orbital spaceflights would be much longer and could potentially dock with orbital space stations, they are also considerably more difficult than suborbital spaceflights. Other private firms working on orbital spaceflight (and potentially in the running for Robert Bigelow's $50 million America's Space Prize for orbital flight) include t/Space and SpaceX."

2 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. PR bullshit by Cally · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    This is just bullshit for the PR-hungry media machine. There's absolutely no way that White Knight / Spaceship One will scale up to an orbital vehicle. If Rutan thinks he can build a vehicle capable of travelling ten times faster than SS1 with high enough SI and all the rest of that engineering detail, great, let him try - but I wouldn't hold my breath.

    --
    "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
  2. In a different newspaper...: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    "The president of spaceflight company Virgin Galactic has recently stated that if the upcoming heterosexual service with SpaceShipTwo is successful, the follow-up SpaceShipThree will be an homosexual craft. Although homosexual spaceflights would be much longer and could potentially dock with homosexual space stations, they are also considerably more difficult than heterosexual spaceflights. Other private firms working on homosexual spaceflight (and potentially in the running for Robert Bigelow's $50 million America's Space Prize for homosexual flight) include t/Space and SpaceX."