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I think it's viewed as wasteful because it doesn't actually get people into orbit, AND it is expensive. Thus, it's only really appealing to rich people with cas

I think it's viewed as wasteful because it doesn't actually get people into orbit, AND it is expensive. Thus, it's only really appealing to rich people with cash to burn. These vehicles aren't even stepping stones to orbital rockets, and orbital launch prices are dropping. It's much more likely that SpaceX will offer tickets to orbit for $25k in the next 5-10 years than it will be for Virgin Galactic to do so. Blue Origin at least has an orbital rocket in development, but who knows if/when it'll even start being fabricated.

xorfish 5y ago
Safety won't be high enough for orbital flights for tourists. Sending rockets to space is still very prone to failures. Failure rates for unmanned rockets where lower 40 years ago than they are now if you look at the trailing 10 year failure rates. Around 1 in 20 unmanned mission fails. Failures for manned missions are less frequent, however noone can guarantee you, that the rate is lower than 1%. https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/8566/what-is-the-success-failure-ratio-of-space-bound-rockets https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/8566/what-is-the-s...
shkkmo 5y ago
Blue Origin is building and firing the BE-4 engines that will be used by New Glen and I rather doubt that there isn't work being done to fabricate other systems given the work that has been completed on their Florida manufacturing facility. Do you have sources that indicate fabrication has not started?
- maccam94 5y ago
  Aha I have found footage showing a New Glenn first stage in the factory earlier this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXOXKfarFhg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXOXKfarFhg I believe I was recalling another video tour, probably from last year, where they said "And this is where the assembled rockets will be stored" and the factory floor was empty. It's pretty cool that they've made so much progress since then!

xorfish 5y ago

Safety won't be high enough for orbital flights for tourists. Sending rockets to space is still very prone to failures. Failure rates for unmanned rockets where lower 40 years ago than they are now if you look at the trailing 10 year failure rates. Around 1 in 20 unmanned mission fails. Failures for manned missions are less frequent, however noone can guarantee you, that the rate is lower than 1%. https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/8566/what-is-the-success-failure-ratio-of-space-bound-rockets https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/8566/what-is-the-s...

shkkmo 5y ago

Blue Origin is building and firing the BE-4 engines that will be used by New Glen and I rather doubt that there isn't work being done to fabricate other systems given the work that has been completed on their Florida manufacturing facility. Do you have sources that indicate fabrication has not started?

maccam94 5y ago
Aha I have found footage showing a New Glenn first stage in the factory earlier this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXOXKfarFhg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXOXKfarFhg I believe I was recalling another video tour, probably from last year, where they said "And this is where the assembled rockets will be stored" and the factory floor was empty. It's pretty cool that they've made so much progress since then!