Richard Branson launches for Space!

RyanB

RyanB

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Richard Branson is expected to take his inaugural space flight this Sunday (7/11) at 9a Eastern Time!

“If all goes well, the flight will get underway at Spaceport America, near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, shortly after 9 a.m. EDT Sunday when Virgin’s four-engine “mothership”, the VMS Eve, takes off and carries the VSS Unity spaceplane to an altitude of about 45,000 feet.

Strapped into Unity, Branson, two company pilots and three Virgin crewmates then will be released for a rocket-powered climb to the lower reaches of space and a gliding descent back to Spaceport America’s 12,000-foot-long runway.”

https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/07/09/virgin-founder-richard-branson-heads-for-space-sunday/
 
RyanB said:
Got that right! I hope all goes well with this. It will certainly be exciting to watch!
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I watched it all years ago when they were first testing the plane. Now that civilian space travel is becoming a reality, it is overpriced and still not available to any one but the "elite." That is why I meh'd it earlier. I hope it all goes well but other than that, I don't care about the billionaire space race.
 
flhrci said:
I watched it all years ago when they were first testing the plane. Now that civilian space travel is becoming a reality, it is overpriced and still not available to any one but the "elite." That is why I meh'd it earlier. I hope it all goes well but other than that, I don't care about the billionaire space race.
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rich man bad, right?
 
Air travel in the early twentieth century was considered something only for the wealthy.

It has now evolved into something most people take for granted.

Commercial space flight being pioneered by the “billionaires” is on that same trajectory. This will eventually open up low space travel between continents, and other travel avenues.

More power to them and their success.
 
Today’s billionaire space flights will be tomorrow’s millionaire space flights. Then it will open up as they’ll need more and more staff and the trips get cheaper.

We probably won’t live to benefit from it but our kids or grandkids might.
 
Used to have to be among the top 99.9% of mountaineers to ascend Everest. Nowadays, one just has to have a fat bank account and a moderate degree of physical fitness. Commercial outfits now take literally hundreds of people to the top of the world.

The Branson and Bezos programs are basically the same. They exist to let rich people brag about how they are "astronauts." Yet they're in zero G only about ten minutes longer than Felix Baumgartner.

Oddly enough, the mountaineering community still venerates Hillary and Norgay. Yet some in the space tourism industry denigrate NASAs achievements in the early '60s. Lot of difference between having to create technology vs. ordering it from a catalog....

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
The Branson and Bezos programs are basically the same. They exist to let rich people brag about how they are "astronauts." Yet they're in zero G only about ten minutes longer than Felix Baumgartner.
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There are some parallels in this...every adrenaline junkie remembers Baumgartner and the marketing barrage, but how many know Alan Eustace, who broke the record 2 years later? This 'race to space' is essentially a PR stunt.

Nauga,
hanging by a thread
 
Getting prepped! New time is 10:30a Eastern

Live feed:
 
nauga said:
There are some parallels in this...every adrenaline junkie remembers Baumgartner and the marketing barrage, but how many know Alan Eustace, who broke the record 2 years later? This 'race to space' is essentially a PR stunt.

Nauga,
hanging by a thread
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But you need PR stunts to promote the product.

In the early days of airline travel “PR stunts” were used such has having celebrities filmed flying on the new airlines to attract public attention and to show the relative safety of air travel.

Low earth orbit travel is IMO the next big leap in air travel. It has to begin somewhere, and fortunately some people are putting the money up and pressing forward.
 
120 years ago at the saloon (since they didn’t have Internet forums):

“Wow did you see that horseless carriage?!”
“Some rich man’s toy. That thing costs $2,000, can you believe it?! Nobody could ever afford that! It’ll never take off.”

Count me in the category or thinking this is a significant milestone. I’ll never go to space, but my kids and grandkids might. That’s a very cool thing to consider. I’m glad there are people with enough money to just spend it on something because it’s cool.
 
White Knight and Chase on FF

KOlxzWA.png
 
eman1200 said:
is this all there is, a flightradar24 track to watch?
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They were showing a live cam from the aircraft a few minutes ago, but now they’re back to this and just jibber jabbering.
 
VGX1 and VGX3 but forflight tops out at 45,850 ft.
 
Keep in mind this wouldn’t be happening today if not for a guy named “Boy George” and a group called “Culture Club”.
 
NASA definiton of space is 50 sm or 264,000 ft. 45,000 aint gonna cut it.
 
Doc Holliday said:
Keep in mind this wouldn’t be happening today if not for a guy named “Boy George” and a group called “Culture Club”.
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Tubular Bells, more like it, right? That seems to have been the biggest break.
 
Ted said:
120 years ago at the saloon (since they didn’t have Internet forums):

“Wow did you see that horseless carriage?!”
“Some rich man’s toy. That thing costs $2,000, can you believe it?! Nobody could ever afford that! It’ll never take off.”
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And them things smells worse that the horses. Except when I feed canned ravioli to my horse, Rusty....
 
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Unity just split off from White Knight. Flightradar lost details at 60,000 ft but still showing route, just not alt or speed

Update: report that it reached 55 sm, which meets the definition of space. Whether they are eligible for the astronaut pin or not, I dunno.
 
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Flight radar 24 showed separation. I tracked Unity to 62,000 ft and over 600 kts. GS eventually went to 0
 
Doc Holliday said:
Low earth orbit travel is IMO the next big leap in air travel.
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Agreed, but it's an *awfully* big leap. Not only does it need ~five times the speed to get to orbit, you are also then left with the issue of shedding all that speed to re-enter.

Not that it *can't* be done (obviously it can!), the question is how much it's going to cost. The orbital tourists will probably have to be trillionaires rather than mere billionaires. IIRC, the first space tourist paid $20M for his flight to the space station...and that didn't involve creation of new technology.

Chemical rockets are a dead end; they're the modern equivalent of hydrogen-filled dirigibles. You can design a fairly safe utilization using them, but their ability to grow and evolve is limited. We need something better. If you've got the ability to generate a decent amount of thrust for hours instead of minutes, the whole solar system opens up.

I once gave a talk to the Oregon Pilot's Association on what's required for space travel. I used a Cessna 182 as an example...how much propellant would be required to put one into Low Earth Orbit? Using conventional propellant (Specific Impuse (Isp) of ~300 seconds), it would required about 30,000 pounds of propellant... a huge external tank. A fuel with an Isp of ~3000 seconds would reduce this to ~650 pounds, small enough to carry onboard.

We have propulsion systems with Isps approaching that, but the thrust produced is far, far too low. Works in deep space, where you can let speed build up over time, but can't get you out of the atmosphere. The ability to generate even 1/4 G continuously over a long period solves a heck of a lot of space travel problems. Mars in four days, vs. 150. AND the physiological issues are greatly reduced.

To quote Larry Niven, "The entire universe is waiting for us to invent anti-gravity."

Ron Wanttaja
 
Well, that was admittedly less climactic than I expected. Sounds like they were only in Space for 3 minutes? Still cool, nonetheless!
 
“Dark Sky- The Race to Space”and “Winning the X-Prize” are excellent Discovery Channel documentaries. Basically the origins of how Burt Rutan and Scaled made today’s flight possible.
 
RyanB said:
Well, that was admittedly less climactic than I expected. Sounds like they were only in Space for 3 minutes? Still cool, nonetheless!
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3 minutes more than I have been. :D

I am disappointed in Bezos' squabbling over where space begins. Even if he makes his 100k km line, I think his achievement will be diminished by his having been a whiny prek to Branson.
 
I just watched the flight. Awesome stuff!

What ratings would those pilots need?
 
From MIT Review, June 2019:

"Since the 1960s, the US Air Force has given astronaut wings to anyone who flies over 50 miles high (an awkward 80.4672 km, measured in metric units). America’s Federal Aviation Administration awards commercial astronaut wings to private pilots who exceed that altitude, which NASA also now recognizes. However, the World Air Sports Federation, which certifies world records for high-altitude flights, sets the boundary at 100 km (62.1371 miles) [aka the Kamen Line). For companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin that plan on taking tourists to the liminal zone for short times, how this line is drawn is, arguably, of critical economic importance: who wants to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to almost get to space?'
 
schmookeeg said:
I am disappointed in Bezos' squabbling over where space begins. Even if he makes his 100k km line, I think his achievement will be diminished by his having been a whiny prek to Branson.
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The trouble is, when the flight is being made *solely for bragging rights*, then the distinction should be considered.

If Aycock and Brown's Vimy had dropped into the Atlantic 3 miles short of the Irish shore, no one would have accepted the claim that they had flown across the Atlantic. Though no doubt some might claim it, since the plane reached the continental shelf or British territorial waters.....

I read something to the effect that the VG flight was only weightless for three minutes. Was a bit surprised by that; it's the same duration Felix Baumgardner had on his parachute record. I thought it was closer to 15. Believe it might have been three minutes above the 50 mile threshold.

I hear that Tom Cruise is planning to use the Space Station for filming the next "Mission Impossible" movie. *That* should be interesting. Susceptibility to space sickness varies with the individual. Often experienced pilots are *more* prone to it, not less.

People have the wrong idea about space flight...they think it's like floating in the water, or hanging in one of those skydiving simulators. It's not...both those situations still have a gravitational reference. Not space. You're falling, endlessly. The human brain Does Not Like That. Might be why pilots seem to have more problem with it, it's a lack of control.

What's more, there's a large amount of human physiology devoted to pumping blood and other fluids upward from your feet back to your major organs. This all gets pumped into your head in space. Head congestion and headaches result.

Ron Wanttaja
 
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