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from the neither-Bezos-nor-Branson-have-anthing-that-will-reach-orbit;-Musk's-rockets-have-done-so-100+-times dept.
[2021-07-11 16:18:14 UTC; UPDATE 2]
Launch, separation from carrier plane, self-powered rocket flight, re-entry, and landing were all successful. Official video stream had several drop-outs. There are sure to be on-ship recordings that will be edited and uploaded for later viewing.
Congratulations to all involved for a safe and successful flight!
[2021-07-11 11:07:52 UTC; UPDATE 1]
The launch has been delayed ~1.5 hours "Due to prior weather".
7:30am PT | 8:30am MT | 10:30am ET | 3:30pm BST
Otherwise known as: 2021-07-11 @ 1430 UTC
Launch is still to be live-streamed on YouTube.
Original story follows.
How to watch Branson's flight, which Jeff Bezos is still hopping mad about:
Virgin Galactic is continuing to make final preparations for the historic flight of its VSS Unity vehicle on Sunday morning, carrying the company's founder, Richard Branson, and three other employees. To that end, on Friday, the company announced that it will have a livestream[*], hosted by Stephen Colbert and featuring a new song by Khalid, to publicize the flight into space.
But wait, is it really space? Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says Virgin Galactic's flights above 80 km are not space.
In a pair of salty tweets on Friday, Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, took potshots at Virgin Galactic and its rocket-powered space plane. "From the beginning, New Shepard was designed to fly above the Kármán line so none of our astronauts have an asterisk next to their name," the company tweeted. "For 96% of the world's population, space begins 100 km up at the internationally recognized Kármán line[**]."
From the beginning, New Shepard was designed to fly above the Kármán line so none of our astronauts have an asterisk next to their name. For 96% of the world's population, space begins 100 km up at the internationally recognized Kármán line. pic.twitter.com/QRoufBIrUJ
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) July 9, 2021
The 96 percent implies that the rest of the world, aside from the United States, recognizes 100 km as the boundary of space. Both the US Air Force—which awarded astronaut wings to X-15 pilots who flew above 80 km—and the US Federal Aviation Administration have said that 80 km represents space.
Wikipedia entry on the Kármán line.
Live stream on YouTube starts at at 6AM PT, 9AM ET, 1 PM UTC.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 11 2021, @08:32PM
Lol, I dunno, space travel?
Doesn't seem like a good idea, pretty sure they burn WAY more fuel to get high enough.