3 ms·

Virgin Galactic unveils commercial spaceship

65 points by prakash 17y ago

robin_reala 17y ago
More photos on Virgin’s site: http://www.virgin.com/travel/inside-virgin-travel/virgin-galactic-unveils-spaceshiptwo-1/ http://www.virgin.com/travel/inside-virgin-travel/virgin-gal...
jodrellblank 17y ago
There are probably several people around HN who are science-y, grew up with sci-fi and space fiction and have $200,000 to spare... Anyone willing to own up to booking a trip?
- astine 17y ago
  If I had the money, I would. Yet another reason to do a startup.
dmoney 17y ago
Am I wrong for thinking this is lame for being suborbital? Would orbital designs based on the same principle be feasible?
- wlievens 17y ago
  There's been some confusing communication about SS3 being (or not being) a suborbital design.
- yters 17y ago
  Nah, orbital is yet another major leap. Right now it's mainly a gee-whiz dealy.
- decadentcactus 17y ago
  You aren't wrong, I think the same. I obviously think it is a huge step, and am definitely not saying I could do any better, but I'm more excited for (at the moment) SpaceX to do bigger things to actually get us into a "space age", not just suborbital hops.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago
  Getting 100 miles up is one thing, getting 100 miles up and then also travelling at 18000 mph is another. You need an extra mv^2/2 energy, which is quite a lot. To get to 160km ~ 100 miles you need about 1.6 MJ/kg. To travel at 8km/s you need about 32 MJ/kg. There's your main difference.
- tybris 17y ago
  > Am I wrong for thinking this is lame for being suborbital? I think you know as well as anyone that this is a crucial step.
martian 17y ago
Bronze Age -> Iron Age -> Industrial Age -> Information Age -> Biotech Age -> Space Age ?
- knv 17y ago
  I think it's more like: Land Travel -> Sea Travel -> Air Travel -> Space Travel
  - jurjenh 17y ago
    And now we're entering an interesting new chapter in the travel industry. Hard to see useful reasons for sub-orbital flights as of yet (other than get from A to B with unique scenery, and "hey, look at how much money I have") but then again, I'm sure much the same was said about air travel in the early days. Regular docking with an orbital station would make space a lot more accessible, as you could then start using several types of ship to travel - one to get from earth to the station, then another for space, reducing the need for a vehicle to be efficient at both. Larger equipment can be hauled up in parts over multiple runs. Fresh food may even become commonplace in space... I'd love to peek into the future and see how this develops over the next 20 to 50 years or so. Will it be more like the space-based sci-fi, or more mundane, with space becoming another "offshore" location for work to be outsourced to.
    - Luc 17y ago
      Orbital stations need to move 'sideways' very fast to avoid falling back to earth - the ISS, for example, moves at about 27,000 km/h. You need a huge rocket to get into orbit, quite unlike the Virgin Galactic plane.
  - unwind 17y ago
    -> Time Travel!!!11111
- lispm 17y ago
  useful -> useless -> stupid
_ck_ 17y ago
It's not a spaceship, it's a very high flying plane that goes 65 miles up. The shuttle orbits at a minimum of 140 miles, the space station is at 250 miles. Earth's atmosphere extends to at least 75 miles, even the 1965 Gemini capsules went to 100 miles.

65 points by prakash 17y ago

More photos on Virgin’s site: http://www.virgin.com/travel/inside-virgin-travel/virgin-galactic-unveils-spaceshiptwo-1/ http://www.virgin.com/travel/inside-virgin-travel/virgin-gal...

jodrellblank 17y ago

There are probably several people around HN who are science-y, grew up with sci-fi and space fiction and have $200,000 to spare... Anyone willing to own up to booking a trip?

astine 17y ago
If I had the money, I would. Yet another reason to do a startup.

dmoney 17y ago

Am I wrong for thinking this is lame for being suborbital? Would orbital designs based on the same principle be feasible?

wlievens 17y ago
There's been some confusing communication about SS3 being (or not being) a suborbital design.
yters 17y ago
Nah, orbital is yet another major leap. Right now it's mainly a gee-whiz dealy.
decadentcactus 17y ago
You aren't wrong, I think the same. I obviously think it is a huge step, and am definitely not saying I could do any better, but I'm more excited for (at the moment) SpaceX to do bigger things to actually get us into a "space age", not just suborbital hops.
RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago
Getting 100 miles up is one thing, getting 100 miles up and then also travelling at 18000 mph is another. You need an extra mv^2/2 energy, which is quite a lot. To get to 160km ~ 100 miles you need about 1.6 MJ/kg. To travel at 8km/s you need about 32 MJ/kg. There's your main difference.
tybris 17y ago
> Am I wrong for thinking this is lame for being suborbital? I think you know as well as anyone that this is a crucial step.

martian 17y ago

Bronze Age -> Iron Age -> Industrial Age -> Information Age -> Biotech Age -> Space Age ?

knv 17y ago
I think it's more like: Land Travel -> Sea Travel -> Air Travel -> Space Travel
- jurjenh 17y ago
  And now we're entering an interesting new chapter in the travel industry. Hard to see useful reasons for sub-orbital flights as of yet (other than get from A to B with unique scenery, and "hey, look at how much money I have") but then again, I'm sure much the same was said about air travel in the early days. Regular docking with an orbital station would make space a lot more accessible, as you could then start using several types of ship to travel - one to get from earth to the station, then another for space, reducing the need for a vehicle to be efficient at both. Larger equipment can be hauled up in parts over multiple runs. Fresh food may even become commonplace in space... I'd love to peek into the future and see how this develops over the next 20 to 50 years or so. Will it be more like the space-based sci-fi, or more mundane, with space becoming another "offshore" location for work to be outsourced to.
  - Luc 17y ago
    Orbital stations need to move 'sideways' very fast to avoid falling back to earth - the ISS, for example, moves at about 27,000 km/h. You need a huge rocket to get into orbit, quite unlike the Virgin Galactic plane.
- unwind 17y ago
  -> Time Travel!!!11111
lispm 17y ago
useful -> useless -> stupid

_ck_ 17y ago

It's not a spaceship, it's a very high flying plane that goes 65 miles up. The shuttle orbits at a minimum of 140 miles, the space station is at 250 miles. Earth's atmosphere extends to at least 75 miles, even the 1965 Gemini capsules went to 100 miles.