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> Branson, in remarks from his Virgin Galactic flight on Sunday, said the spaceflight was the “complete experience of a lifetime” shortly after the spacecraft s
by aazaa 5y ago
> Branson, in remarks from his Virgin Galactic flight on Sunday, said the spaceflight was the “complete experience of a lifetime” shortly after the spacecraft successfully took off over New Mexico.
The most striking thing about this is not the idea of suborbital flight (not new), nor the involvement of a private company (also not new), nor the idea of a spacecraft launching from a plane (also not new).
What's new and mind-blowing is that space travel can be an experience that people will pay for. You're not taking a suborbital flight, you're becoming an astronaut.
As the initial novelty of "being to space" wears off, there will be demand (and money) to fund ever more unusual space experiences.
At some point, it will become clear that there's not just one or two space travel companies, but a space travel industry.
Then what?
- ronyfadel 5y agoThen we go spend a week of vacation on another planet.
- isoskeles 5y ago> What's new and mind-blowing is that space travel can be an experience that people will pay for. You're not taking a suborbital flight, you're becoming an astronaut. This is like saying being a passenger on a plane makes me a pilot.
- coldcode 5y agoThe only people that can pay to be an "astronaut" atm are billionaires, or close to. Someday maybe it might be something ordinary people can do, long after I am dead. When Disney builds a park in orbit or on Mars and fills it up, then space travel is affordable (if you view Disney as affordable today!).
- kevinventullo 5y agoI thought the cost of going up was going to be ~ $100k’s? If so, that means it’s accessible to millions of people, but definitely not billions.
- nradov 5y agoHilton was planning to build a hotel on the moon back in 1967. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/hilton-hotel-on-moon-scn-cmd/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/hilton-hotel-on-moon-...
- webinvest 5y agoColonize Venus? Create a bigger space station than the ISS?