The Register, a consistently excellent source for technology news, reports “Virgin Galactic to unveil tool to fling rich people into space”!
Well, not rich exactly; it’s only $200,000 per person. In a generation or so, the Grand Tour will have you in a rotating ship on approach to a space station, with Strauss’s “Blue Danube” playing in the background.
You might, like James Michener, figure that getting off the planet is a historical imperative that we shoulder or fail. Or you could decide that humans are (becoming) unlike pigs, and the best chance we have for survival is to abandon our former environs, now exploited beyond immediate recovery.
Or you might just be a fan of airplane design. If that’s the case, all you need to hear is “Burt Rutan”. You probably already know about his latest (video).
The Virgin Galactic mother ship was unveiled today. It’s scheduled to reach 50,000 feet before it looses the payload of rich people. The center fuselage containing the passengers will then burn its fuel and rocket into outer space, resulting in five minutes of weightlessness. (What will Larry Flynt pay for pictures…?)
Wonder if Mark Shuttleworth will book a flight on this one too. As rich guys go, he's a class act.
Posted by: Michael on July 29, 2008 5:32 AM