5 ms·

I think there is a pretty large market for a trip to space and an hour flight from LA to New Zealand, New York-Sydney, London-Shanghai, etc. for $10-20k. What a

I think there is a pretty large market for a trip to space and an hour flight from LA to New Zealand, New York-Sydney, London-Shanghai, etc. for $10-20k. What an amazing combination that would be.

rbanffy 3y ago
Add a couple hours for the trip between town and pad, security and so on. Still it's 3-4 hours.
- lupusreal 3y ago
  I don't think there are many cities that have suitable launch sites near them. It's unlikely they'll ever get approval to launch over populated areas, or even from most populated coastal locations. Also, the issue of getting boosters to all of these destinations seems like a problem. Planes don't split in two and have half return to the launch site but Starships do. So you could land the upper stage in Tokyo, but then what? How do you get a booster there for the return journey? Personally I doubt they'll even use these to bring people to orbit anytime soon. I think they're purpose built for launching massive LEO constellations.
  - njarboe 3y ago
    Off shore platforms. Most large cities are on or near an ocean or large lake.
  - dotnet00 3y ago
    Yeah the short term approach for crewed Starship seems likely to involve transporting crew to a Starship once it is already in orbit and vice versa for return.
  - sebzim4500 3y ago
    You'd probably have to launch from international waters, after taking a boat/helicopter. >Also, the issue of getting boosters to all of these destinations seems like a problem You launch them, presumably.
    - snypher 3y ago
      You're not truly wealthy until you have boosters staged at your vacation homes.
    - Gare 3y ago
      Or just ship them... with a ship.
  - skissane 3y ago
    > Also, the issue of getting boosters to all of these destinations seems like a problem. Planes don't split in two and have half return to the launch site but Starships do. So you could land the upper stage in Tokyo, but then what? How do you get a booster there for the return journey? IIRC, the suborbital point-to-point transport use case doesn’t use the booster (SuperHeavy), just Starship.
AtlasBarfed 3y ago
Think of this market: The NFL wants to expand to Europe, Asia, South America badly. Problem is the logistics of Mach-1 air travel won't allow that. Same for the NBA, NHL, and MLB. A true world super league of futbol. We're talking 10s of billions of dollars in new annual revenue for these sports leagues ... if they could transport a whole team anywhere in the world in 4-5 hours. It costs a couple hundred thousand per flight for a team? Um, the Super Bowl brought in 600 million in ad revenue and probably another 50-200 million in ticket costs.
- Sanzig 3y ago
  A transcontinental flight ranges from low five figures for a long range business jet to upper five/lower six figures for a widebody jetliner. Those are machines purpose built for the job of moving people transcontinental distances. They benefit from decades of heritage building tens of thousands of units leading to extremely aggressive cost optimization. I just can't see Starship getting the cost per flight down into the hundreds of thousands of dollars range. Not to mention the boring (but important) constraint of trying to insure a team of valuable athletes flying around in a rocket with way less of a safety record than conventional air travel. That said, having a sports team arrive in town by literally descending from the heavens on a burning rocket sounds badass. Unfortunately I can't really see it happening, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
  - pests 3y ago
    I agree it would t work. The Miami Dolphins charter a private 747 with 143 business class seats, 36 economy seats, 26 upper deck business and 10 first class. Not only do all 55 players need to travel but so do all the people accountable for electronics, medical, gear, coaches and staff, etc. It's a lot to transport and a lot of risk on one vehicle.

I think there is a pretty large market for a trip to space and an hour flight from LA to New Zealand, New York-Sydney, London-Shanghai, etc. for $10-20k. What an amazing combination that would be.

rbanffy 3y ago

Add a couple hours for the trip between town and pad, security and so on. Still it's 3-4 hours.

lupusreal 3y ago
I don't think there are many cities that have suitable launch sites near them. It's unlikely they'll ever get approval to launch over populated areas, or even from most populated coastal locations. Also, the issue of getting boosters to all of these destinations seems like a problem. Planes don't split in two and have half return to the launch site but Starships do. So you could land the upper stage in Tokyo, but then what? How do you get a booster there for the return journey? Personally I doubt they'll even use these to bring people to orbit anytime soon. I think they're purpose built for launching massive LEO constellations.
- njarboe 3y ago
  Off shore platforms. Most large cities are on or near an ocean or large lake.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  Yeah the short term approach for crewed Starship seems likely to involve transporting crew to a Starship once it is already in orbit and vice versa for return.
- sebzim4500 3y ago
  You'd probably have to launch from international waters, after taking a boat/helicopter. >Also, the issue of getting boosters to all of these destinations seems like a problem You launch them, presumably.
  - snypher 3y ago
    You're not truly wealthy until you have boosters staged at your vacation homes.
  - Gare 3y ago
    Or just ship them... with a ship.
- skissane 3y ago
  > Also, the issue of getting boosters to all of these destinations seems like a problem. Planes don't split in two and have half return to the launch site but Starships do. So you could land the upper stage in Tokyo, but then what? How do you get a booster there for the return journey? IIRC, the suborbital point-to-point transport use case doesn’t use the booster (SuperHeavy), just Starship.

AtlasBarfed 3y ago

Think of this market: The NFL wants to expand to Europe, Asia, South America badly. Problem is the logistics of Mach-1 air travel won't allow that. Same for the NBA, NHL, and MLB. A true world super league of futbol. We're talking 10s of billions of dollars in new annual revenue for these sports leagues ... if they could transport a whole team anywhere in the world in 4-5 hours. It costs a couple hundred thousand per flight for a team? Um, the Super Bowl brought in 600 million in ad revenue and probably another 50-200 million in ticket costs.

Sanzig 3y ago
A transcontinental flight ranges from low five figures for a long range business jet to upper five/lower six figures for a widebody jetliner. Those are machines purpose built for the job of moving people transcontinental distances. They benefit from decades of heritage building tens of thousands of units leading to extremely aggressive cost optimization. I just can't see Starship getting the cost per flight down into the hundreds of thousands of dollars range. Not to mention the boring (but important) constraint of trying to insure a team of valuable athletes flying around in a rocket with way less of a safety record than conventional air travel. That said, having a sports team arrive in town by literally descending from the heavens on a burning rocket sounds badass. Unfortunately I can't really see it happening, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
- pests 3y ago
  I agree it would t work. The Miami Dolphins charter a private 747 with 143 business class seats, 36 economy seats, 26 upper deck business and 10 first class. Not only do all 55 players need to travel but so do all the people accountable for electronics, medical, gear, coaches and staff, etc. It's a lot to transport and a lot of risk on one vehicle.