4 ms·
The fun thing about Virgin Galatic is that they already have all their crew/human support tech working, and have been flying with humans for years. All they n
by danielvf 8y ago
The fun thing about Virgin Galatic is that they already have all their crew/human support tech working, and have been flying with humans for years.
All they need to do to be the first private company to put a human in space is just choose to burn their rocket a little bit longer than they have already...
SpaceX and Blue Origin totally have the theoretical capability to put a man in space anytime now - Blue Origin has flown dummies to space, and SpaceX could fly a suborbital flight with their current Dragon capsule even if it wasn’t up to NASA human standards.
The biggest issue at this point is just cost vs bragging rights. SpaceX would have to pay so much more than the other two, that I would guess they will just wait to claim the first private orbital man in space crown.
- nabla9 8y ago> just choose to burn their rocket a little bit longer than they have already... Virgin Galactic would need roughly 10-15 times larger rocket to put human in the lowest orbit. They are not planning to do that and their system is not planned that in mind. Space is not far. Space is just one hour drive with a car if you drive directly up. Getting to orbit of the same altitude is 10 times harder and that's the business where SpaceX and Blue Origin are.
- mLuby 8y agoI'm confused, has Blue Origin demonstrated orbital capability and I missed it? I thought SpaceX and Rocket Lab were the only private orbit-capable launch providers.
- danielvf 8y agoI’m talking “Alan Sheppard” man in space, not “John Glenn” man in space. Suborbital. Blue Origin can do that any time they want to risk it.