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Yeah, the sub-orbital is a harder sell. When you are the only one or one of a few, the benefit/cost is perceived to be higher. After a dozen or so of these fl

Yeah, the sub-orbital is a harder sell. When you are the only one or one of a few, the benefit/cost is perceived to be higher. After a dozen or so of these flights much of the cachet will be gone. Can they (Bezos/Branson) bring the cost down fast enough to transition to a sustainable model? In 2000, Dennis Tito paid $20M for 11,400 minutes in space or about $1750/minute ($2765 in 2021 dollars). The Branson and Bezos models 20 years later are much more expensive per minute and are so short there is no real time to absorb the experience.

simpleguitar 5y ago
I think a lot of people might be willing to pay for 4 days in orbit for $2M. My version would have blackjack and hookers, obviously.
samstave 5y ago
Honestly, I wish Branson and Bezos would have just put their dicks back in their pants and just fully got behind spaceX I absolutely dont care about Bezos or Branson being able to do these stunts - SpaceX already docked with the IIS ffs. It's like McClaren winning the Gran Prix, and then Toyota and Ford showing that their CEOs can finish a few laps in Monaco.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- lttlrck 5y ago
  Doesn't blindly ceding to the industry leaders ultimately result in stagnation? The VG and BO launches were both underwhelming for me - but it's still exciting to see the different engineering approaches, it's like hedging a bet, and I am sure each of them will pay dividends - one way or another.
  - samstave 5y ago
    Jeasus fn christ HN users are so FN pedantic... Sure innovation IS good -- but in this case - we have LITERALLY THREE people on the planet attempting this endeavor, and I just think its a waste of duplicate resources in this case. AT THIS TIME If its so fucking important that we come to be multi-planetary as Musk believes, then these guys (who honestly arent going to be around forever, unless they are off-planeting organs and blood-boys (Hey peter thiel), should be focusing the initial endeavor to figuring out the reusable launch vehicles, fuels, lifting, getting materials to space... etc. I just fundamentally disagree with JB and RB - I think they are ego driven and musk is vision driven. There is a difference. Get to the point of understanding the human race as a single race and not a market competition without the vision.... fuck space capitalism. --- I love it when I get downvoted on HN, as its like "I am going to downvote you because I think you are wrong, but I am not going to tell you why! because I am so much smarter than your lame opinion" In my ~14 years on this site or whatever it is I literally almost NEVER downvote. If I disagree, I explain... Fuck space capitalism. Again, and let me tell you why: Human economies are incapable of dealing with the aftermath of the things they create to make a profit. Look at the space junk? Look at the Ocean gyers? Look at the plastic industry, coal, oil, etc etc etc etc.... Everyone on here wants to praise the creation of a new space industry, just like any other industry... Yet - there is no true exit, waste, impact, ripple-effect management strategy built into any of these systems. Look at plastics. It is the cancer of the planet. We implemented not-even-a-half-assed solution to that... heck the CRV fund was robbed and many of the plastics produced are not recyclable. We implemented "gas tax to fund roads" -- Have you seen the state of roads in the US, esp California? Did you know that we are now fighting over a ~multi-Trillion dollar "infrastructure plan"? We implemented a financial lottery to fund schools -- when was the last time you heard anything about that, as opposed to the last time you heard about the last time a teacher was underfunded and was buying either supplies or food for students. So fuck that. We funded telcos to build high-speed internet, they stole that money and didnt build shit. (In FN SILICON VALLEY, we were some of the last people to get "high speed cable modems from COX and other providers) We have MASSIVE e-waste out of every single high-tech company that you have ever heard of. ALL we do is pollute... You think that Bezos Branson and Musk are going to rectify the inertia of the above WRT space? If anyone may, it would be musk. Bezos FN sends tiny items in huge boxes from AMAZON all the time - there are tons and tons of pics of over packaging from amzn online.... So yeah - I am angry - because shit like this is a waste when done in such a ludicrous disjointed fashion. You are too concerned with the novelty of the engineering, and I am calling out the FN lamness of the long-term vision of the impact in 50 years.

simpleguitar 5y ago

I think a lot of people might be willing to pay for 4 days in orbit for $2M. My version would have blackjack and hookers, obviously.

samstave 5y ago

Honestly, I wish Branson and Bezos would have just put their dicks back in their pants and just fully got behind spaceX I absolutely dont care about Bezos or Branson being able to do these stunts - SpaceX already docked with the IIS ffs. It's like McClaren winning the Gran Prix, and then Toyota and Ford showing that their CEOs can finish a few laps in Monaco.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
lttlrck 5y ago
Doesn't blindly ceding to the industry leaders ultimately result in stagnation? The VG and BO launches were both underwhelming for me - but it's still exciting to see the different engineering approaches, it's like hedging a bet, and I am sure each of them will pay dividends - one way or another.
- samstave 5y ago
  Jeasus fn christ HN users are so FN pedantic... Sure innovation IS good -- but in this case - we have LITERALLY THREE people on the planet attempting this endeavor, and I just think its a waste of duplicate resources in this case. AT THIS TIME If its so fucking important that we come to be multi-planetary as Musk believes, then these guys (who honestly arent going to be around forever, unless they are off-planeting organs and blood-boys (Hey peter thiel), should be focusing the initial endeavor to figuring out the reusable launch vehicles, fuels, lifting, getting materials to space... etc. I just fundamentally disagree with JB and RB - I think they are ego driven and musk is vision driven. There is a difference. Get to the point of understanding the human race as a single race and not a market competition without the vision.... fuck space capitalism. --- I love it when I get downvoted on HN, as its like "I am going to downvote you because I think you are wrong, but I am not going to tell you why! because I am so much smarter than your lame opinion" In my ~14 years on this site or whatever it is I literally almost NEVER downvote. If I disagree, I explain... Fuck space capitalism. Again, and let me tell you why: Human economies are incapable of dealing with the aftermath of the things they create to make a profit. Look at the space junk? Look at the Ocean gyers? Look at the plastic industry, coal, oil, etc etc etc etc.... Everyone on here wants to praise the creation of a new space industry, just like any other industry... Yet - there is no true exit, waste, impact, ripple-effect management strategy built into any of these systems. Look at plastics. It is the cancer of the planet. We implemented not-even-a-half-assed solution to that... heck the CRV fund was robbed and many of the plastics produced are not recyclable. We implemented "gas tax to fund roads" -- Have you seen the state of roads in the US, esp California? Did you know that we are now fighting over a ~multi-Trillion dollar "infrastructure plan"? We implemented a financial lottery to fund schools -- when was the last time you heard anything about that, as opposed to the last time you heard about the last time a teacher was underfunded and was buying either supplies or food for students. So fuck that. We funded telcos to build high-speed internet, they stole that money and didnt build shit. (In FN SILICON VALLEY, we were some of the last people to get "high speed cable modems from COX and other providers) We have MASSIVE e-waste out of every single high-tech company that you have ever heard of. ALL we do is pollute... You think that Bezos Branson and Musk are going to rectify the inertia of the above WRT space? If anyone may, it would be musk. Bezos FN sends tiny items in huge boxes from AMAZON all the time - there are tons and tons of pics of over packaging from amzn online.... So yeah - I am angry - because shit like this is a waste when done in such a ludicrous disjointed fashion. You are too concerned with the novelty of the engineering, and I am calling out the FN lamness of the long-term vision of the impact in 50 years.