Posted on 10/09/2017 10:48:03 AM PDT by Red Badger
After thirteen years of development and setbacks — including a fatal crash, technical difficulties and frequent delays — Richard Branson's private space program, Virgin Galactic, is soon ready for live action, at least according to Branson himself.
“We are hopefully about three months before we are in space, maybe six months before I’m in space,” the founder of Virgin Galactic, which is part of Virgin Group, told an audience at Nordic Business Forum in Helsinki, Finland last week.
When he received an audience question about who will reach Mars first, he or Elon Musk, Branson made clear he is not as keen on the red star as SpaceX and Tesla's founder.
“I’m not as passionate about Mars as Elon is. My love for space is about how much it can do for people back here on earth, and that’s what Virgin Galactic is pushing towards.”
Elon Musk recently said he plans to land his first rockets on Mars by 2022, with his SpaceX program.
“[Getting to Mars] is an incredible challenge, and I suspect Elon [Musk] will get there first. He’s more interested in big rockets going big distances. We’ve been more interested in talking people to space, and satellites, slightly closer to earth,” Branson said.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
You must still always figure on getting away from earth to the moon to launch from the moon
Escape velocity of Moon: 1.5 miles/second
So maybe Branson can go after the Moon, while Musk goes after Mars.
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SpaceX could be putting two paying passengers on a trip around the Moon within the next two years.
SpaceX did another successful launch and landing this morning. It’s so routine, you probably didn’t know about it. They’re scheduled to do another in two days.
Virgin Galactic has been disaster.
“I’m not as passionate about Mars as Elon is. My love for space is about how much it can do for people back here on earth, and that’s what Virgin Galactic is pushing towards.”
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Branson is full of feces. SpaceX now dominates the commercial launch market because of the benefits it provides to people here on Earth with its low cost launch services.
They launched ten communications satellites this morning.
I have to say, I admire Musk. He thinks big and he gets it done.
The moon should come before Mars. Distance alone makes Mars exponentially more difficult.
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I disagree. Once out of Earth’s gravity well, the heavy lifting has been done. It’s human life support requirements over time that create the difficulty. Without humans, going to Mars isn’t that much more difficult than going to the Moon, though the Russians might disagree.
Going to the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars just increases the complexity and cost.
Trump is another guy who thinks big and gets it done.
“You may leave here for four days in space, but when you return it’s the same old place”
Barry McGuire
“Eve of Destruction”
“Whitey’s On the Moon.”
Can you hear me Major Tom?
Your circuit’s dead!
There’s something wrong!....................
David Bowie - Space Oddity.................
NASA can build the first mosque on the moon.
Star? STAR???
WTF?
Star, planet, whatever...............
Just like it was our money that took us into space and to the moon during the 1960s.
Only this time all of it passes through the sticky fingers of Elvis Mosk.
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