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| Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo |
Virgin Galactic must be his most ambitious project to date and he aims to kick off a new age of space tourism. The challenges are numerous and fraught with danger but I have no doubt that he will triumph as he throws an enormous amount of money at it.
The current asking price for one of those 6 passenger seats on SpaceShipTwo is some $US200,000. That will buy you approximately 6 minutes of weightlessness and something to brag about when your return to terra firma. Already they have 500 registered space tourists - many have chosen to remain anonymous but others are happy to be identified.
In a bygone age we would have relied on the military powers of the US or the now defunct Soviet Union for this kind of frontier technology but now we have enterprising billionaires who are prepared to invest their considerable fortunes in pushing those barriers.
The very best of luck to Branson's team for their supersonic trials.
SpaceShipTwo Links
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| SpaceShipTwo is carried aloft |
Virgin Galactic
SpaceShipTwo plans to go supersonic (NBC)
Breaking the sound barrier in SpaceshipTwo (Discovery)
How SpaceShipTwo works
01/05/2013
The test scheduled for 30/04 went according to plan and SpaceShipTwo achieved supersonic speed, albeit for just a few secoonds. These powered flight trials are important stepping stones in gaining approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and vital to making this project a reality.Something that Virgin train passengers can relate to - Virgin Galactic are putting up their prices. Branson is announcing that the asking price for new ticket-buyers is going up to $250,000 a pop. "In about a week's time, we're going to put the price up to $250,000 until the first 1,000 people have traveled,” Branson said, "so that it matches up with inflation since we started." Time to get in quick to bag a bargain?
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| Source: MarsScientific.com |
Independent Television News (ITN)
CBC News
Space.com
Wired.com
This is an interesting read, I have to say though I think I could find other ways to spend $200,000. It seems an awful lot just for 6 minutes of fun, but good on him for doing it.
ReplyDeleteIf this is a roaring success, Bransons next mission might be to get people to live on Mars..
I agree Damien, but I guess the people who have signed up can afford the asking price to be one of the first.
ReplyDeleteActually I haven't added it yet but apparently Branson has recently announced that until the first 1000 people have been up he's going to have to raise the cost from 200-250K per ride!