2008, The Year of the Spaceship

DynaSoar writes "2008 Could be a the year of the Spaceship. Virgin Galactic intends to unveil White Knight 2 as well as Spaceship 2 during the next year, at this point planning for January. Burt Rutan, always reticent to comments on progress of any project, says nothing to support or contradict Virgin Galactic's announcement. However, the report states that Spaceship 2 is 50% complete and White Knight 2 is 60% complete. In addition, Virgin Galactic is considering using White Knight 2, or possible its successor White Knight 3, to put small satellites in orbit for a cost of US$3 million, less than half the current front runner in (projected) low cost orbital launches; SpaceX's Falcon at US$6.7 million. Tourism aside, this could be an extremely lucrative spin off of Virgin Galactic's original plans. If this turns out to be a profitable endeavor, the cost of tourism flights could drop significantly."

Comments

Year of the Spaceship?

[JKSN17]

Is this the new 2.0 edition of the Chinese Calendar. Let me know when it's the year of the iPod.

US$3 million!

[Thanshin]

Just three ridiculous million dollars? With the contents of my wallet right now I could send 0.00002077886 satellites!

Interstellar domination is finally at reach.

obWho

[Rob T Firefly]

Burt Rutan, always reticent to comments on progress of any project, says nothing to support or contradict Virgin Galactic's announcement. That's because this Rutan and his brethren are far too busy preparing for the next stage in their ongoing interstellar war against the Sontaran Empire.

Time to Completion

[Anonymous Coward]

However, the report states that Spaceship 2 is 50% complete and White Knight 2 is 60% complete. How many citizens would I have to sacrifice to have these done in 1 turn? I want to research advanced tech 4.