SPACE! (...for a price)

[Dan4th]

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/12/07/2143953.aspx



LET'S GO!

Danf.

[Mags]

Maybe we need a IA group weekly lotto ticket - if we win a biggy, we can have an IA day out ........ in space

[Saracenman]

all things space fascinate me, but I've no interest in going

sm

[Dan4th]

Party Pooper!!!!!!!!!

D.

[Spitfire]

I just love Burt Rutan's designs

[Xplumberlives]

all things space fascinate me, but I've no interest in going

sm

I bet they'd let you wear your bumblebee shirt underneath your space suit!

[Thumper]

I think Branson went to see 2012 at the cinema!

Not sure how much it would be but I still think I would prefer the Edge of Space flight in the MIG-29, far sexier plane and comes with ejector seat and parachute

[Dan4th]

Actually, the Rutan/Branson thing goes something
like 5 or 6 times higher than the Miggie....maytbe
more!

And the cost -- let's see -- $200,000.00 US Dollars --
that's 122,376.62 in your currency -- cheaper than
a lot of automobiles I can think of, and will only come
down as their operation gets rolling....

I wonder how much money could be earned for the
Vulcan if Branson made a seat available to be
raffled-off??????????

I'm guessing that by 2020 they will have newer and
larger craft(s) and the price will be less than 1/4 of
what it is now. Of course, that's assuming they don't
have any kind of an "incident". Face it, though, with
something like this if someone stubbed their TOE while
getting out of the thing it would be splashed all over
the media how deadly and unsafe the whole thing is!

Danf.

[Thumper]

Ahhh yeah but you can't do a Split S in Bransons machine, would probably snap in half

Agreed about the nanny state comment though. I wonder how long before someone throws up or faints and they sue for mental trauma "no-one told me that 10G* would make me feel a bit off colour"

*NB thats a guesstimation

For the price of that Branson flight you can go up in the MIG 8 times

[Checkflaps]

As a taster - here's what the baby version did to win the $10M X-Prize. Looks like fun to me.



As for the height - apogee I think is about 62 miles +, or 100Km up where space 'officially' starts. So somewhere up around the 330,000ft mark. Before you then fall back to earth like a sycamore leaf, and then land like a glider.

I think the G force is no more than about 4g sustained. But I might be wrong on that.

Garry