“The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in.”
Robert Heinlein
When talking about Space Travel and Space Tourism, we still have to look through a list of science fiction stories to find it. Virgin Galactic wants to change that by bringing short hops into Space to the wealthy traveler who has been everywhere.
“The deal with Mojave Aerospace Ventures is just the start of what we believe will be a new era in the history of mankind, one day making the affordable exploration of space by human beings a real possibility.” Richard Branson.
At $200,000 for five minutes of weightlessness, I am not sure that affordable is the word I would use. Buy hey, any price is better than not being able to go at all, which is how NASA currently feels about space tourism on its space ships.
Unless Richard Branson has a Stargate he’s keeping under wraps, calling his space tourism company Virgin Galactic is a bit on the ambitious side. But then, Virgin Edge of Earth’s Atmosphere doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Sir Richard Branson was among about 60 people who finished trainiong for Virgin Galactic space travel. Part of the training involved hopping into a centrifuge and taking about 6 Gs, which is about 5 morer Gs than I would be willing to take. I don’t even like roller coasters.
Test flights for Virgin Galactic’s spaceship might start as early as next year.
I wonder how work on the Transporter is coming?
