Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic crew safely back from space, ushering in a new era

[former9thward]

Source: Washington Post

For 20 years, Richard Branson has yearned to ride his spaceplane to the edge of space. On Sunday, he did it.

The suborbital trip gave the British billionaire, his three crewmates and two pilots a glimpse of the Earth from more than 50 miles up and a few minutes of weightlessness before the vehicle they were traveling in, SpaceShipTwo Unity, glided back to Earth and a landing on the runway at Virgin Galactic’s facility here in the New Mexico desert.

It was SpaceShipTwo’s fourth trip to the edge of space since 2018, and Virgin Galactic, the company Branson founded in 2004, says it will soon start flying paying customers regularly on similar jaunts, opening a new era in human space exploration.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/11/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-live-updates/?wpmk=1&wpisrc=al_news__alert-national--alert-economy--alert-hse&utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert&pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJjb29raWVuYW1lIjoid3BfY3J0aWQiLCJpc3MiOiJDYXJ0YSIsImNvb2tpZXZhbHVlIjoiNTk2ZDViYWFhZGU0ZTIwN2QyOTZhYmVlIiwidGFnIjoid3BfbmV3c19hbGVydF9yZXZlcmUiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vdGVjaG5vbG9neS8yMDIxLzA3LzExL3JpY2hhcmQtYnJhbnNvbi12aXJnaW4tZ2FsYWN0aWMtbGl2ZS11cGRhdGVzLz93cG1rPTEmd3Bpc3JjPWFsX25ld3NfX2FsZXJ0LW5hdGlvbmFsLS1hbGVydC1lY29ub215LS1hbGVydC1oc2UmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1hbGVydCZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj13cF9uZXdzX2FsZXJ0X3JldmVyZSZsb2NhdGlvbj1hbGVydCJ9.1iSX_G_DQMOD05tZmn09nwglFpATjMyRlqZwJMITUNc

[PSPS]

1. I'm so happy the untaxed billionaire parasite class has a new toy!!111!!1!

[Polybius]

13. He's British

I'm sure they tax their billionaires.

[PSPS]

21. Branson lives on his "Necker Island" in the BVI and pays no taxes.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

34. Space is now a 1%ers ego trip.

At least in their twisted outlook. He moved up the date 'cause of Bezos.

[traitorsgalore]

47. Exactly!

Maybe someday all their spacecraft will "trickle down" on us and we'll all be flying around like The Jetsons! LOL!

[Jose Garcia]

49. I'm glad that his company employs 800 Americans

[packman]

2. Yawn ---

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. Same.

I'm more entertained by these endeavors, done by many people already:

[Mustellus]

3. Yes, the business model ....

... is to make a lot of money before the first one blows up and kills a bunch of millionaires. That should end it.

This is a reprise of the X-15 from the late 50's / early 60's. Now its a roller coaster ride.

(The Rutan / Branson vehicle has already killed one pilot and crippled another. An earlier version ripped itself apart during rocket boost when the wings were moved to their reentry position. )

[former9thward]

9. Accidents happen but that will not end space flights.

The U.S. Space program killed 17 astronauts but it continues. As far a millionaires are concerned early commercial manned flight was something for the very rich and accidents happened. But as more and more people used the flights the cost came down to the point everyone could go on flights.

[Mustellus]

11. Spaceflight....

is what NASA, the Space Force, the Russians, the Chineese, and yes, even Elon Musk are doing.

This is a roller coaster.

[Larissa]

35. Apollo Mission

The BBC interviewed Michael Collins, who was the skipper of the Command Module "Columbia" which circled the moon while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did their thing. This still remains one of the most incredible achievements. Collins said that if the mission didn't work and he was forced to leave Neil and Buzz behind on the moon, he'd be a marked man for the rest of his life. The Apollo crew knew that the chances of the mission failing somewhere along the line were relatively high, but they were optimistic about surviving.

Michael Collins, the skipper of the Command Module "Columbia" which orbited the moon, kept around his neck, a 8" X 10" notebook with 18 possible scenarios of what could go wrong.

Once Armstrong and Aldrin were finished, Collins would rendezvous and dock with the Eagle after it left the lunar surface. *That maneuver was the one they had prepared for the most during their training on Earth," said Collins.

Factoids: The Moon is a quarter of a million miles from Earth. When Collins orbits took him to the far side of the Moon, contact with Mission Control was lost. A total of 400,000 Americans worked on the Apollo project. During nine Apollo missions, 12 astronauts walked on the Moon.

[CentralMass]

39. The X-15 program has been called the most successful aeronautical research effort in history.

It provided the means to test theory and obtain the data necessary to make space flight possible. At the time the military was also developing ICBM;s and there was some politics involved with scrapping the X15 project in favor of lobbing a manned capsule into space atop of a rocket. Eventually we did develop the space shuttle that used some of the concepts of the X15 project and it was a very successful program.

What Branson achieved here is amazing,

[eggplant]

46. NTSB said it was mostly co-pilot error.

[jrthin]

4. Ho effing hum.

[jcmaine72]

5. "Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic crew"

If I ever create a rock group comprised solely of incels (or young Republicans), that's the name I'm using.

[secondwind]

7. Bored billionaires looking for something interesting to do...................

how about making life on this planet better for millions of people? How about vaccinating the people of Haiti (although I think their problem is storage of vaccines, not that I have read this... just my opinion)????

How about paying down debt of hundreds of thousands of college students who are indebted up to their eyeballs?

How about building houses for immigrants who left their homes behind?

How about... wait, what did you say? You rather fly off into space????

[Polybius]

12. He gives a ton to charity

He's entitled to spend something on himself once in a while.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. I expect DU might get pissed off about this guy now...

IMHO, we got to get out of the retro "capsule-landing-in-the-ocean" model and get back to a shuttle-like type of spacecraft, which is what this vehicle attempts to update.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

19. Is the ship designed for the heat of orbital reentry?

If all he wants is to experience microgravity, he can book a flight with Zero G. For only $7500 he could experience 15 parabolic arcs, each providing 30 seconds of weightlessness.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. Apparently it is

at least for the altitude that the ship reaches before returning.

I.e., the "vomit comets" are just going up to "normal" commercial plane altitudes (about 30,000 - 40,000 ft) and doing successive rises and drops to simulate microgravity. This vehicle actually went 7x higher to about 280,000 ft for its apogee (around the beginning of the thermosphere), and then did the drop.

I doubt it was done for microgravity purposes because I expect they had already trained to experience that in vomit comets. It was more to test the concept of the vehicle "launching" from a high altitude (~50,000 ft) and then propelling itself the rest of the way without all the gigantic booster rockets needed to get into orbit - basically high enough to see the curvature of the earth and return (although this was only going 1/2 the way to orbital altitude).

You might recall this guy almost 10 years ago free-diving from about 1/2 of the distance (128,000 ft) that this ship reached today-

ETA - I found this too - https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/07/outer-space-may-have-just-gotten-bit-closer where there was a re-definition on where the "atmosphere" ends and "space" begins - about 50 miles up (80 km), which is how high this vehicle reached.

[Mustellus]

44. and Air Force Maj Joseph Kittinger ...

did it in 1959 and 1960 . History apparently repeats, first as science and engineering, and then as attention grabbing.

[BumRushDaShow]

45. Neither Baumgartner nor Kittinger flew up to 280,000 ft altitude

let alone without some kind of special environmental suit.

[NullTuples]

50. No, not even close.

It is designed for a speed on ascent of about 4,200 km/h, or 2,600 mph. But then it then slows to a vertical speed of zero at apogee, approximately 80km, and then accelerates as it falls down at the usual Earth gravity 32 feet per second per second - minus whatever resistance the folded wing provides, which is substantial.

During tests the maximum descent speed was about Mach 0.85 - slower than the speed of sound.

Something like the Shuttle or a Gemini or Apollo capsule is travelling at orbital speeds on re-entry, something a bit less than 17,500 mph / 28163.52 kph. For instance, a typical low earth orbit re-entry is typically at a speed of 27,000 km/h or 16,777 mph, or about mach 13.7!

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. The problem with a shuttle-style craft is the weight of the wings you're carrying up

and accelerating to orbital speed. Maybe the real future is a deployable lightweight steerable parachute wing. NASA toyed with the idea in the early 60s, and even though they dropped it, hang-gliding resulted:

On 23 November 1948, Francis Rogallo and Gertrude Rogallo applied for a kite patent[9] for a fully flexible kited wing with approved claims for its stiffenings and gliding uses; the flexible wing or Rogallo wing, which in 1957 the American space agency NASA began testing in various flexible and semi-rigid configurations in order to use it as a recovery system for the Gemini space capsules. The various stiffening formats and the wing's simplicity of design and ease of construction, along with its capability of slow flight and its gentle landing characteristics, did not go unnoticed by hang glider enthusiasts. In 1960–1962 Barry Hill Palmer adapted the flexible wing concept to make foot-launched hang gliders with four different control arrangements.[10] In 1963 Mike Burns adapted the flexible wing to build a towable kite-hang glider he called Skiplane. In 1963, John W. Dickenson adapted the flexible wing airfoil concept to make another water-ski kite glider; for this, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale vested Dickenson with the Hang Gliding Diploma (2006) for the invention of the "modern" hang glider.[11] Since then, the Rogallo wing has been the most used airfoil of hang gliders.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_gliding

[BumRushDaShow]

31. I was thinking this was testing a concept of launching

from a high altitude (vs from the ground) without the need for gigantic multi-stage booster rockets because you avoid much of the atmospheric drag to at least get it part of the way up (where any final stage actually gets the vehicle into orbit, which is not yet needed in this test case, but the onboard rocket can get it some extra distance up).

I know there are some satellites that get launched this way.

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. There is another branch of Virgin that's just started that with a 747

(so not flying as high as their launcher today - which should have reached about 49,000 ft, well above normal airliner altitudes) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LauncherOne#Launch_statistics

And the Pegasus system did some in the 1990s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_launch

[BumRushDaShow]

37. Yup...

I know Musk (and his SpaceX) doesn't agree with that method, but I figure let the research and data gathering continue.

[Devil Child]

10. Awesome!

[Blue Owl]

14. Suck it Bozos

[Warpy]

15. It landed and his body parts are attached and not incinerated

so it's a howling success. Ticket prices will be $250,000-500,000, undercutting Space X by a lot. The flight is also easier on body systems, which should make it popular with aging fat cats.

Reports put weightlessness at "several minutes," which is better than the Vomit Comet's 20-25 seconds per climb.

[Devil Child]

17. I wish my wallet and body could take the punishment of every available flight experience

I'd take this, a B-17 ball gunner turret, MiG flight, anything if I could. This will prob be a brisk business for those that have the cash.

[DownriverDem]

16. If only

the rich would help the country. We have so many problems due to repub neglect.

[EX500rider]

33. You do know Branson is British right?

[Cryptoad]

18. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ,,,,,,,

[stillcool]

20. sounds like a lot of money for a cheap thrill

I'll wait for a livable planet to visit.

[Mr. Evil]

22. There was once a time

when automobiles were considered novelties for the rich. Now, most everyone has one or more. We're almost to the point of them being completely autonomous. Have a little forward vision because when our children are in their fifties and sixties they'll have them. Our grandchildren will travel the world in a fraction of the time that we do today.

Some of these endeavors are supported by billionaires but, the paths they forge today will bring us easier and more efficient travel in the future. At least they aren't sitting around with the Koch's and Mercer's of the world living only for more money and power. They're actually doing something worthwhile.

[mainer]

26. I totally agree. The railroads were funded by wealthy men.

Home computers were developed by wealthy men. Without someone throwing in their own money and taking the risks, a lot of what we now consider commonplace might never have happened.

[BigmanPigman]

43. The Gilded Age robber barons were super greedy.

Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, etc were bastards to American workers. Then one day one of them died and the others decided they wanted to be rembered fondly so they had a competition over who could donate more to charities, education, etc. before they died too. I'd like to see that from today's 1%.

[TheDemsshouldhireme]

23. How was this worthy of about 3 hours of coverage on CNN

The aircraft has already made this flight with test pilots. the only new about it was Branson was on it and thats worth 3 hours of wall to wall coverage?

[CrispyQ]

25. I'm glad he beat Bezos.

Personally, I thought Felix Baumgartner's skydive from the edge of space was way more interesting.

[Archae]

27. When cell phones first came out, only the rich had them.

Remember "The Brick?"
And all they could do was make phone calls.

Nowadays, on my own limited money, (SSI,) I have two.
Just bought a larger one, still keeping the smaller one as a spare.

[former9thward]

28. I see those on reruns of Seinfeld.

I never had one.

[Orrex]

29. Can't tell if I'm more disgusted or bored by this revelation

"Billionaire Masturbates for All the World to See, and All the World Watches. Again."

[IcyPeas]

36. think of all that money being used for this.

I couldn't care less. I mean what was the point? is this helping humanity?

[EX500rider]

38. Generally all peaceful research & development helps humanity down the road.

So far space research has invented or advanced these things:


Health and medicine
2.1 Infrared ear thermometers
2.2 Ventricular assist device
2.3 LASIK
2.4 Cochlear implants
2.5 Artificial limbs
2.6 Light-emitting diodes in medical therapies
2.7 Invisible braces
2.8 Scratch-resistant lenses
2.9 Space blanket
2.10 3D foods printing

3 Transportation
3.1 Aircraft anti-icing systems
3.2 Highway safety
3.3 Improved radial tires
3.4 Chemical detection

4 Public safety
4.1 Video enhancing and analysis systems
4.2 Landmine removal
4.3 Fire-resistant reinforcement
4.4 Firefighting equipment
4.5 Shock absorbers for buildings

5 Consumer, home, and recreation
5.1 TEMPUR foam
5.2 Enriched baby food
5.3 Portable cordless vacuums
5.4 Freeze drying
5.5 Space age swimsuit
5.6 CMOS image sensor
5.7 Air-scrubbers
5.8 Bowflex

6 Environmental and agricultural resources
6.1 Water purification
6.2 Solar Cells
6.3 Pollution remediation
6.4 Correcting for GPS signal errors
6.5 Water location

7 Computer technology
7.1 Structural analysis software
7.2 Remotely controlled ovens
7.3 NASA Visualization Explorer
7.4 OpenStack
7.5 Software catalog

8 Industrial productivity
8.1 Powdered lubricants
8.2 Improved mine safety
8.3 Food safety

[Devil Child]

40. You care enough to reply, the point is to progress, progress helps humanity.

On the balancing-scales of today's achievements we have these forum posts of ours and Branson's flight. I think one has clearly helped humanity a bit more than the other.

[AllaN01Bear]

41. space exploration. meh, more like 1% er thrill ride to me .

[Locrian]

52. space exploration (exploitation) by the 1% is the new "let them eat cake" - n/t

[Jon King]

42. Anytime science and technology is front and center it is helpful....

Thousands of kids around the world will see this and think science and tech is cool, that pays dividends down the line.

These days with stupid being front and center on the right and wing nuts from Arkansas thinking they know more than Fauci about his field....its good to see reality and advanced science and brain power getting coverage.

Same with the spelling bee....the more we celebrate smart people the better chance we have at beating back the seriously stupid Trumpers.

[Owl]

51. Yes indeed. And this was an amazing technology achievement.

[marble falls]

48. So happy for him. I'm glad he didn't waste time with money on crap like Covid innoculations ...

... for the poor or the third world.

Yeah, I know, he's involved in charities, but from those whom much is given, much is expected.

[Happy Hoosier]

53. This is good, regardless of who did it.

I don't quite understand the folks here shitting all over the efforts of Musk, Bezos, and Branson.

I mean, are they great people? No. But they are pushing the technology to open space travel to cheaper, safer, and more efficient solutions. Maybe I'm just a tech nerd, but to me, that kind of innovation is a good thing.

But I'm not in the navel-gazing club that thinks we can't do aspirational things while any injustice or suffering exists in the world.

[ripcord]

54. It doesn't take much for people to get butthurt

[Happy Hoosier]

55. So it seems...

I've run into this attitude more than I'd like. It's a little disheartening. I generally think of Democrats as people who have an appreciation for the breadth of human accomplishment.

[llashram]

56. ok