Branson Plans to Launch Virgin Galactic
Sir Richard Branson is a billionaire who never foisted bad software on the public, inherited it from daddy or found himself living on a lake of oil. He started Virgin records as a teen-ager, brought New York and London closer with Virgin Atlantic in the 1980s, and now he wants to start a space tourist business. Virgin Galactic will have 5 space-faring vessels and carry 3,000 into orbit between 2007 and 2012. At least, that is what Sir Richard has said.
Sir Richard does have a reputation for being flighty (pun acknowledged), such as his ballooning adventures. At the same time, he is not the sort of fellow to let the word “impossible” into his conversations. So, he has linked up with Mojave Aerospace Ventures, the people who own the technology that put SpaceShipOne into space in June – the world’s first privately funded space ship.
It won’t come cheap, but compared to NASA, ESA and the Soviet/Russian efforts in space, it will be hugely economical. After spending $100 million on infrastructure and ships, Virgin Galactic (which was first registered and trademark protection applied for back in the 1990s – Sir Richard has been planning) will offer seats for $190,000 in current funds. Government-funded flight is going for $15 million or more, when the launch systems are working.
What does that money get the space tourist? Three days of pre-flight training, a flight of just a few hours, and weightlessness. Since the tourists are just that, cargo that breathes, the months of training that astro/cosmonauts undertake to learn their procedures are unnecessary. Later flights will disembark at a space hotel, if Sir Richard’s vision becomes reality.
And why shouldn’t it? The International Space Station is already a rather crude hotel, doing precious little science. Dr. Bob Park, testifying before Congress in 1997, called it the "greatest single obstacle to the continued conquest of space." American Physical Society President Nikko Bloembergen explained that "microgravity is of microimportance." Leave low orbit to Sir Richard, and NASA can get on with the Mars probes, that are still working months after their primary three-month mission ended in April and may be in service next April.
© Copyright 2004 by
The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without
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