SpaceShipThree to be Orbital Spacecraft

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."

Comments

Re:Interesting..

[LiquidCoooled]

Re-entry?
I thought SS3 was going to be the one way journey?
We have to cull the super rich somehow.

news at eleven

[spectrokid]

we are building a spacecraft which should be better then our current one, and if we find out it actually works, then we will try to build one which is even better!!! seesh, talk about vapourware...

Re: Slashdot bullshit

[CleverNickedName]

Or, to put it another way (and miss-quote The Simpsons):
"It's just rocket science, not brain surgery."

Re:Ticketprizes?

[FireFury03]

$100.000 for flying from LA to Sydney in approx 4 hours?

Plus a 4 hour checkin and a body-cavity search at customs...

Re:Here's why

[Taladar]

2. Because I'll be dead before they get the orbital vehicle ready for commercial passengers.

...because I booked a flight in the beta version of the suborbital vehicle...

Here's a suggestion

[Henry V .009]

How to make money with space tourism:

Don't charge much up front. People could ride for beans on one condition. Their life insurance policies get made out to you.

Re:Here's a suggestion

[Henry V .009]

Then what's my incentive to actually let the customer survive the trip...

None. Try thinking more like a Merck or Firestone executive.

Re:Ticketprizes?

[jurt1235]

a-rat? Old fashioned. e-rat is the modern way to go, or if you are a mac fan: i-rat coming out soon.

Re:Ticketprizes?

[raider_red]

Plus a 4 hour checkin and a body-cavity search at customs...

And they send your luggage to Saturn.

Every rocket is an orbital rocket.

[fizzup]

Just about every rocket is orbital for some portion of its journey (unless it turns into a glider immediately after its engines shut off). It's just that the orbit intersects the surface of the earth - no big deal, really.