How much would you have paid for this flight?

[OldAirmail]

Go to the 25 second mark. Then hold tour breath.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZj7LB1ilnY[/youtube]



Worst seat of all - The co-pilot.

[mustangaroo]

This looks interesting. I will not hold my breath waiting for a flyable sim however. Triple hulls? How are the Jesus bolts installed?

[PhantomTweak]

The middle"hull" is actually Spaceship Two. The Mothership, White Knight Two carries it to a great altitude, then it drops away and ignites a powerfull rocket, made from used tires of all things, and flies up to LEO (Low Earth Orbit). When it comes time to return to Earth, it does what's called a "Falling Leaf" maneuver, tipping to tail/wings into the vertical relative to the hull, and drifting slowly into the atmosphere, thus eliminating re-entry heat and it's concerns. Once the craft reaches thick enough air, around 50-60kft I believe, the tail/wing assemble returns to it's "regular" flight position, as seen here, and the craft glides to a landing, in a much more controllable, and slower speed than the shuttle.
All of this is NOT conjecture. It's been done. Two orbital insertions and, after several orbits, two returns (not exactly re-entry as most think of it). All done in the space of, now wait for it....TWO DAYS. All it needed for a turnaround was a replacement of the rocket motor, and replenishment of the oxygen. Let's see NaySay do THAT with their badly out-of-date shuttle. They can't even get it to the friggen Assembly Building in a day...
Both White Knight and Spaceship Two are made from carbon fiber composites, and their computer and instrument systems are all off the shelf, and thus quickly and easily upgradable. Again, let's see NaySay do that! And the costs, while pretty high, are nowhere near the multibillions NaySay uses.
Virgin Galactic is a long-delayed first step into a new world, and a vital one to Human Survival! All this sort of thing should have been the focus of NaySay since we landed on the Moon, not their buerocratic spending of huge monies for no return.
Just a little blurb, sorry. But to answer the original question: Not nearly as much as I'd spend to go up in Spaceship Two! I'd mortgage my SOUL to do that, even just once...
Pat☺

[OldAirmail]

Yeah, hold your breath at the beauty of it.

I'd go even if I were told that there were only a 50/50 chance of coming back alive.

[Fozzer]

When it comes to manned flight beyond Earth's Gravity, I cant help but recall the warning words of; "Major Tom"....

...and then I decide to stay safely; "Down Here"... ...!

Paul...feet firmly planted on Mother Earth!.... ...!

"Flight Simulation" is for those of us with a very vivid imagination... ...
"Real Flight" is for the Birds!.... ...!

[G.K.]

Nice vid OldAirmail. Ive been following Virgin Galactic's progress. I'd give it a go.

[Apex]

Good blurb there, PhantomTweak, thanks.

Checked it out briefly on Wiki, OK, you got $200,000, you get a ride. There are those out there who will/might take that ride, because they have the dough and guts, and after reading the Wiki thing, quite frankly, and this is just my personal take, that's pretty commendible. In some ways, those types would be contributing to the research aspect of this project, which, being a private, corporate enterprise project, with the usual corporate tiered chain of command leadership, can design a proper horse, as opposed to government enterprise, which usually ends up with a camel. It's visionary, and that's what is needed now with any space related enterprising. And $200,000 a ride will help cover the enormous cost of all this.

I think NASA should still be crediting for everything it's done, however. Back when, gov't funds and enterprising were the only way space exploration could have been accomplished. The times since have a-changed, and private enterprisers should be looked at in a positive light for their enthusiasm and visionary ideas.

NASA should watch all this closely.

[Hagar]

When it comes to manned flight beyond Earth's Gravity, I cant help but recall the warning words of; "Major Tom"....

...and then I decide to stay safely; "Down Here"... ...!

Paul...feet firmly planted on Mother Earth!.... ...!

Couldn't agree more. I've never had any ambition to go into space.

43,000 feet in a jet trainer back in 1959 was quite high enough for me. I was a lot younger then.