To Infinity...and Beyond

I think Richard Branson has gotten just a *bit* ahead of himself. But I'm pulling for him.

Richie Rich has signed an agreement with New Mexico to build a $200M spaceport - yes, a spaceport - for his new company, Virgin Galactic (this is not a joke, people) and their spaceships. Space. Ships.

NASA can't keep tiles from falling off the shuttle, but Branson is building a fleet of spaceships for tourists?

"When Burt Rutan and SpaceShipOne won the X PRIZE in October 2004, we knew the new space industry had arrived," said Secretary Rick Homans. "And when Sir Richard Branson announced that Virgin would use that same technology to fly paying passengers into space, we realized that our most important job was to convince Virgin Galactic to come to New Mexico and launch the personal spaceflight industry.

In July of '05, Branson and Rutan signed an agreement to form "The Spaceship Company" (a lot of thought went into that name, obviously). This new aerospace production company will manufacture launch aircraft, spaceships and support equipment and market them to spaceline operators, including the launch customer, Virgin Galactic.

Virgin Galactic has placed orders for five spaceships and two launch aircraft with options on further systems, thus securing the exclusive use of the systems for the initial 18 months of commercial passenger operations.

I have a question. When the flight attendants are giving you the pre-flight safety instructions, do they just eliminate the whole "your seat cushion can be used as a floatation device" part? Cuz, call me silly...but when I'm in low-Earth orbit and my shuttlecraft blows an engine...I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna survive a free-fall re-entry from space. If I magically survive the burning descent, and miraculously end up over water rather than a land mass...I'm still pretty sure the impact at that speed is gonna eliminate the need for any floatation devices.

I'll BE a floatation device, I'm sure.

What's interesting is that there's a competing spaceport out there - in Singapore. They even have a concept design already:


The company running the show, Space Adventures, has an exclusive partnership with the Russian aerospace team of Suborbital Corporation and the Myasishchev Design Bureau, with their Explorer sub-orbital space vehicle design.

Space Adventures also recently announced a contract with Prodea, a private investment firm founded by the Ansari family, to support the development of the Explorer. The Ansari family sponsored the X-Prize sub-orbital space vehicle competition. Further, Space Adventures announced that it has an agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, which confirms FSA’s oversight and supervision in the development process of the Explorer.

I'm jazzed about this. Healthy competition in the field of space travel is good, especially with a dinosaur like NASA having snail-crawled their way around it for decades. You can joke about the Russians being involved in the Singapore venture, but their Soyuz spacecraft are STILL functioning a hell of a lot better than our shuttlecraft are. They make crap vehicles, but they're DURABLE.

Go, Singapore!