OT: Virgin Galactic

[tkbike]

Originally Posted by William

Y'all are in the wrong thread right now!

https://forums.thepaceline.net/showt...hlight=reading





W.

I’m impressed you remember every thread!

[William]

Originally Posted by tkbike

I’m impressed you remember every thread!

Usually it's songs, but sometimes it's threads.





W.

[gemship]

Originally Posted by tkbike

If you have the money, can’t you spend it as you want? I don’t get this whole idea of telling people how they should be spending money they earned! It sounds like pure jealousy to me!
It’s a sad life you live if you think you can define another’s life!!!!!

Are you alright or what? Do you really think any of us actually talk to these billionaires? I know they don't give me the time of day and I bet they're too important to get on this forum and read what we post. We all may live on the same planet and that's pretty much about it. All I did was make a post to this thread that someone else started. It was an honest post and I didn't tell anybody how to spend their money. I may sound negative in saying this but I guess I kinda see this achievement to right up there with who's got the biggest battleship, cigarette boat or fancy bike. I don't really see it making the quality of life better on earth. People on this forum talk about a lot of "green" related stuff that's supposed lesson our carbon footprint well I guess this is the opposite to that.

Seriously I personally really don't care, I just see some irony to it. I will say I rode my bicycle for the first time in a while on a public road and it was annoying, no shoulder to the road and even when people slow to a crawl in cars behind me it sucked sharing the road with cars. It's no surprise to me that cyclist are a danger on roads to everyone including themselves, it wasn't enjoyable, I felt kinda stupid out there just waiting to get runned down and this was a narrow set of roads with mostly 25/30 mph speed limits. I really don't know how you guys do it.

[PQJ]

Can someone who thinks this is an “achievement” / “accomplishment” help me understand how that is so?

Stipulating my belief that we should be able to spend what $ we have how we see fit, this billionaire space race seems to me as not much more than a bunch of dudes with gobs of $ leveraging technology developed by government(s) over the past 70 or so years to fly really, really, really high. How is that an “achievement” / “accomplishment”?

[reuben]

Well, I'm not sure that I'd want to be on an Eroica spaceflight, although it'd be nice to wear any socks I want without the UCI slapping me with a fine.

[zap]

Originally Posted by guyintense

I watched it too and noticed that they never mentioned Burt Rutan. Not once.

I noticed that too.

I am enjoying the resurgent space”race”. Yes, the US did some of this 65 years ago but then the US slipped way down the slope to relying on old soviet technology. Plenty of lost knowledge.

So, now we have several companies working on concepts. You can’t go from zero to Mars without taking many steps, many repeated using new materials, etc. Some of these firms are crawling now but let’s see where in the race these companies are 10 years from now.

[wallymann]

Originally Posted by zap

...So, now we have several companies working on concepts. You can’t go from zero to Mars without taking many steps, many repeated using new materials, etc. Some of these firms are crawling now but let’s see where in the race these companies are 10 years from now.

virgin galactic isnt developing anything to get humans to mars, they are all about sub-orbital space tourism.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by bicycletricycle

Pretty cool achievement.

Lots of grumps around here

Agree..private 'space' flight, the technology. And, even tho not mentioned, Burt Rutan..a true aviation genius.

I'm sure when the bike maker brothers rolled out their contraption, lots called it a 'nonsense project' too...Good thing they didn't listen to the 'grumps'...

.i wish all these billionaires going to space would just do us all a favour and stay there

Hmm...and maybe just give unemployment to the 800,000++ people who work for these 2 'billionaires??

William, post 41, gets it.

Today just proves Elon Musk and SpaceX are orders of magnitude farther ahead.

This is hilarious..my, how the wind changes. Not too long ago Elon was a whipping boy, now he's an example of 'true' civilian space flight and the other 2 "B" guys are just amateur pickers..

[gemship]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

Agree..private 'space' flight, the technology. And, even tho not mentioned, Burt Rutan..a true aviation genius.

I'm sure when the bike maker brothers rolled out their contraption, lots called it a 'nonsense project' too...Good thing they didn't listen to the 'grumps'...


Hmm...and maybe just give unemployment to the 800,000++ people who work for these 2 'billionaires??

William, post 41, gets it.

Post 41 get's it....I dunno just seems like he's rationalizing the good vs. the bad. The bike makers and their perseverance with their contraption...All well and good back in a time of Earth's history with much less people on the planet and much less effects of the industrial revolution on this planet. The unemployment comment...I dunno, above my paygrade besides you sound a bit sarcastically grumpy and dare I say venturing into politics?

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by gemship

Post 41 get's it....I dunno just seems like he's rationalizing the good vs. the bad. The bike makers and their perseverance with their contraption...All well and good back in a time of Earth's history with much less people on the planet and much less effects of the industrial revolution on this planet. The unemployment comment...I dunno, above my paygrade besides you sound a bit sarcastically grumpy and dare I say venturing into politics?

Geez, these 2 guys put their own money into these private projects, one was successful and the other probably will be too and the 'answer' is let's fling these 2 along with any other billionaires off into space..

I don't care if it was a 'publicity stunt', it's still amazing..along with other 'games' other very wealthy people 'play', like F1 or unlimited air racing or owning a fleet of war birds or an America's Cup contender...

It costs a billionaire's fortune to take part
The entry fee for the 2021 America's Cup is $2 million per team – but that is barely the tip of the iceberg. The cost of running a team, developing some of the most high-tech boats in the world, the support crews, sailors and infrastructure runs to tens of millions.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, teams agreed to reduce the budget cap from $175 million per year to $145 million from 2021, setting the bar for the coming season.

Like this thread..gad zooks..
https://forums.thepaceline.net/showt...=270696&page=8

[unterhausen]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

This is hilarious..my, how the wind changes. Not too long ago Elon was a whipping boy, now he's an example of 'true' civilian space flight and the other 2 "B" guys are just amateur pickers..

Elon didn't change. He's got the best rockets because he bought the best rocket company. He must mostly leave them alone, although it's not like there are a lot of alternative companies to work for if makes some of his important rocket scientists mad.

When I was in the Air Force in the early '90s, there was a IMA reservist that would come in and mindlessly change the engineering drawings on weekends. The rocket company he worked for strongly urged him to invest his salary and he was buying $60k/yr of stock in that same company on top of that. I always wonder if one of these billionaires made it worth his time or if he lost all that.

[redir]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

I'm guessing Branson didn't acknowledge the one test pilot who died and the other who barely survived in the development of this nonsense project.

Just pawns in the game.

---

Honesty I don't give one ratz azz about billionaires who don't pay their employees a decent wage going to space. Well that's not true I care enough to make this post but that's about it. Lets move on.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by redir

Just pawns in the game.

---

Honesty I don't give one ratz azz about billionaires who don't pay their employees a decent wage going to space. Well that's not true I care enough to make this post but that's about it. Lets move on.

For example, a 12th year captain on the 777, 787, or A330, is making $293 per hour. At 900 hours per year, that's ~$264,000 per year.

[zap]

Originally Posted by wallymann

virgin galactic isnt developing anything to get humans to mars, they are all about sub-orbital space tourism.

As I posted, some firms are working on concepts.

Lifting off from the planet takes a lot of energy. Who knows, maybe a battery powered plane will be the launching platform for a small space craft traveling to a space station.......from a space station to........

[Mr. Pink]

Originally Posted by mcteague

The first plane and airship flights were only for the wealthy. Same here it would seem. Give it time.

Tim

The Wright's weren't wealthy. They were bicycle mechanics.