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Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo reaches space for the first time
Virgin Galactic has come a long way since its tragic 2014 crash. The company's SpaceShipTwo has reached space after months of testing, flying to an altitude of 271,268 feet before returning to Earth. The stay was brief (SST fired its rocket for all of a minute), but it was enough to both verify the spacecraft as well as conduct four NASA-backed scientific experiments that studied the effects of microgravity and devices that could handle life support and counteract vibration.
[...] Actual passenger flights aren't likely to happen for some time. Virgin stressed that it wanted to finish its tests "safely," not just quickly. The successful visit to space makes that more a question of when than if, though, and suggests that Richard Branson might be vaguely realistic when he talks about hopping aboard his own flight within months.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Friday December 14 2018, @07:15PM (1 child)
What I read on ars [arstechnica.com] earlier today seems like the goal posts were moved to define space as 80 km instead of 100 km.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by The Shire on Friday December 14 2018, @08:27PM
80km is a NASA designated boundary for calling someone an astronaut. 100km is the Kármán Line which is another fairly arbitrary marker from the FAI. Neither is honestly what most of us consider to be "Outer Space" though it technically is. Considering it's 384,000km to the moon which is considered very close, 100km seems like not a whole lot more than a transatlantic airline.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday December 14 2018, @07:19PM (1 child)
How has this not spawned endless jokes already? Are wags too focused on politics to crack the jokes about Virgin spaceships that practically write themselves?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 14 2018, @11:47PM
welcome to the beige age!
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Friday December 14 2018, @10:46PM (4 children)
I saw several articles saying that Branson beat Musk and Bezos to space because he got the first people into space. Branson seems to have made for the absolute bare minimum to meet the goal and then claim victory. When Musk sends people up the first time they will be able to get to the ISS on a rocket able to do a ton more than "Space"ShipTwo.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday December 15 2018, @01:50AM
And then we have a planned BFR joyride around the Moon. Even if SpaceX's timeline is off by 2 years, I don't think any competitor is going to offer that anytime soon.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 15 2018, @04:31PM (1 child)
I would call that sour grapes. There was a spec, they met the spec, they win that particular set of Kudos. These guys have done it the right way from the beginning and they deserve their props. Though I think it is kindof shitty that Branson doesn't mention Burt in their press release. "Founded by Branson?" Suuuuure it was.
Maybe part of that is an effort for this to be seen as a "British" space program. Though if they're going to make it a nationalist thing, they should probably move it out of the Mohave.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday December 15 2018, @05:19PM
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/12/virgin-galactic-just-flew-to-82-68-kilometers-is-this-space/ [arstechnica.com]
It's just a lot easier to get to 83 km than it is to get into orbit.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 15 2018, @09:32PM
"Branson seems to have made for the absolute bare minimum to meet the goal "
Now, now, credit where credit is due, if you were a billionaire with declining fortunes, you'd do the bare minimum too!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 15 2018, @07:34PM
all of the time.