Posted on 05/07/2006 9:04:40 AM PDT by BenLurkin
LOS ANGELES - Virgin Galactic officials see their new space travel endeavor as more than a business to bring the experience of spaceflight to paying customers. It is part of a larger goal to use capitalism and new technology to improve the world in which we live.
The spacecraft that will serve Virgin Galactic's customers - designed and developed by SpaceShipOne creator Burt Rutan and his Scaled Composites in Mojave - will ultimately contribute to the environmentally friendly technology which Virgin believes will be necessary to meet society's problems in the future.
"We're going to have to be in space if we're going to solve a lot of the problems on the ground," Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn said. "I believe all of that is really going to need to be done in the private sector."
Whitehorn and other company leaders provided an update on their program Thursday at the International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles.
The space tourism program follows many other high-technology endeavors within the Virgin Group that seek to enact change in how such problems are addressed, such as the energy-efficient electric trains it runs throughout England.
SpaceShipOne is viewed as a proof-of-concept vehicle demonstrating the value of technologies such as composites and hybrid rocket motors, Whitehorn said.
The dream of spaceflight and of bettering the world propels Virgin Galactic's customers, as well. More than 50,000 expectant customers have signed on through the company's Web site, said Stephen Attenborough, vice president of astronaut relations.
As part of the marketing of the as yet nonoperational spaceflight service, the company has enlisted an elite group of 100 founders from around the world, all who have paid their $200,000 tickets in full. These founders are ambassadors for the program, as well as providing feedback for its development, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
I believe our future is out in space. IF we cannot figure out a way eventually we will be doomed.
"What angle can we exploit to get our name back in the papers?"
"We choose to go to the moon not because it it is an ridiculously expensive political stunt but because there is a genuine economic reason to do so."
If there isn't a good reason -- then these companies will go out of business.
They will make money hand over fist. Composite material manufacturing in space will be a cash cow. There are certain processes that work best at zero(low)gravity in the manufacturing process according to what I have read. It actually is better for business to do this than government. Whomever wants to risk their capital, should reap the benefits.
"Burt Rutan and His Scaled Composites" would be a great name for a rock group.
Yes, it's going to be expensive at first, but if you are not just interested in quarterly profits, the chances for long term are really good. It's a big risk, but the rewards can make Bill Gates look like a pauper.
my cousin is a nasa scientist...i asked him a few years ago..."why should we(as taxpayers) want to keep spending billions of dollars on the space program, what are we really getting out of it?"
He really could not think of one good reason why we should. He basically came up with "if we didn't keep funding the space program there would be alot more unemployment"
this is a guy who worked on the hubble telescope folks, if he couldn't give me one good reason why we fund this crap then....well....figure it out.
They will make money. Like the roller coaster, there were skeptics at first, but those who put up the cash to build the first one make their money back many times over, and people still aren't tired of riding them. But lets not be fooled by this speech, there is only one reason they are building this thing, to make money. Improvements are bound to happen, just like cars and roller coasters we see today much better than the first ones. But the bottom line is the shareholders portfolio.
[Yes, it's going to be expensive at first, but if you are not just interested in quarterly profits, the chances for long term are really good. It's a big risk, but the rewards can make Bill Gates look like a pauper.]
When the first handful of companies begin to make big profits in space technologies after they finally pay off their initial huge investments, that's when the government will step in and start regulating them to prevent them from getting a "monopoly" in space and from "price gouging" and "profiteering" at the expense of working families. You know it will happen and there's no way around it, because it happened to Internet Technology and it's happening to Big Oil and most of the public is blissfully riding along on that bandwagon.
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