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First Flight For SpaceShipTwo

Posted by timothy on from the next-time-do-it-from-l.a. dept.

mknewman writes "Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane took to the air for the first time this [Monday] morning from California's Mojave Air and Space Port. The craft, which has been christened the VSS Enterprise, remained firmly attached to its WhiteKnightTwo carrier airplane throughout the nearly three-hour test flight. It will take many months of further tests before SpaceShipTwo actually goes into outer space. Nevertheless, today's outing marks an important milestone along a path that could take paying passengers to the final frontier as early as 2011 or 2012."

5 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Space sickness? by wsanders · · Score: 3, Informative

    So how many people are going to pay $200K to ride in this thing, and then ask for their money back because they spent the flight puking their guts out?

    I mean, for the same cash, I could rent a MiG-29 for a couple days and have a hell of a time.

    http://www.flyfighterjet.com/

    --
    Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
  2. Link to marketing video by MyLongNickName · · Score: 3, Informative

    YouTube link.

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    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  3. Re:Sub-Orbital == Final Frontier? by QuantumG · · Score: 3, Informative

    Those same people used to spend about as much on personal computers.. now you have one.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  4. Re:Sub-Orbital == Final Frontier? by Brett+Buck · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nonsense. The problem with the space race is that it was unsustainable. There was no way any nation would maintain that kind of spending for an extended period of time. We were spedning around three percent of GDP... for something with intangible payback.

            Intangible payback? Where the heck do you think that money went? Why, into the economy. 400-500,000 people were employed in one way or another by the space program or spinoffs. That's a hell of a lot more effective return on investment than any of the ~10% of the GDP pissed away into "jobs stimulus" in just the last year.

              Brett

  5. Re:One small step for man... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Informative

    1970's - humankind stopped bothering putting them on the Moon, but did put them in high orbit - Skylab

    Skylab was in Low Earth Orbit. It never got more than 275 miles from Earth. It would have been better to say:

    1970's - humankind gave up on going farther from Earth than LEO.

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