Well SIGN ME UP!!!

[Diver0001]

I was watching TV last night, something that I don't do very much because I spend so much time on scubaboard... and saw a program about somethign called "spaceship one".

Did you know...(I did not)...that a private company has been making sub-orbital space flights in their own plane-come-spaceship? That big shots like Paul Allen and Richard Branson have their hooks into it and that YOU CAN BUY TICKETS!

LOL. This is very exciting. Cracks have been selling tickets for space flights for years but this is the first time a company with a working space vehicle, credible sponsors and sufficient money have done it! They're busy working on the finer points of things like "how to provide the customer with an "experience"" and if all goes well the first "Virgin Galactic" customers will take off in 2008.

I just went to their website to book but unfortunately my Mastercard would melt......tickets are 200 grand.

Here's a picture of their vehicle in space.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

You know....I was just thinking. Scubaboard has 50000 members. If we could get 2-3 thousand members to all donate a doable amount of money we (or scubaboard) could buy one ticket and raffle it off here.

How 'bout it guys..... anyone game for this?

R..

 

[Kim]

Yes I've seen that. I thought they won that prize that was on offer - can't remember the details - for whoever made two flights within a month or something. (I'm sure some enterprising person will find a link with the details!!)

 

[Kim]

You know....I was just thinking. Scubaboard has 50000 members. If we could get 2-3 thousand members to all donate a doable amount of money we (or scubaboard) could buy one ticket and raffle it off here.

How 'bout it guys..... anyone game for this?

R..

Would that need Tech training? How big a pony would they need? Bailout options?

 

[diversteve]

They won the Ansari X-Prize ($10 million) for being the first re-usable space vehicle to make two flights to space within 2 weeks.

http://www.worldspaceflight.com/civilian/x-prize.htm

It was Burt Rutan's group - Scaled Composites that did it first. The same people who did the Voyager round the world flight w/o stopping a decade ago.

Branson came along near the end and put up money so his company Virgin Galactic could announce the first commercial flights right after they won the prize. Paul Allen who was one of the longer term sponsors just showed up to watch the flights with Burt and the team. Thousands of people lined the runway when the pilot brought the first ship back in, at one point he ran over to the crowd and got a banner for the ship as they were towing it back to the hangar with one of Burt's pickup trucks. Never see that when the shuttle lands.

It's t-shirt space travel. The pilots just wore jumpsuits. What was revolutionary at the time is that it was the first manned flight to low-space orbit not in any way funded or assisted by NASA.

There's a whole series of videos that run on Discovery about it every so often. It was a big deal here in the states when they did it Sept./Oct. 2004. I believe Spaceship One, both the mothership and the module are now hanging in the National Air & Space Museum in Washington.

It's on the list, anybody got a spare $195K?

 

[Diver0001]

They won the X-Prize for being the first re-usable space vehicle to make two flights to space within a week(month?) It was Burt Rutan's group - Scaled Composites that did it first. The same people who did the Voyager round the world flight w/o stopping a decade ago.

Exactly why this is exciting! Finally some people with a realistic chance of succeeding have gotten their hooks into this.

Branson came along at the very end and put up a lot of money to get his name plastered all over everything and his company Virgin Galactic announced the first commercial flights.

You're coming across cynically but I'd say more power to him. He's a real visionary and a bonafide adventurer. Maybe one of the few we have left on this planet.....and he put up a *lot* of money to make this happen. If he wants his name on it, fine. Where's the rub? I only hope I get the chance to shake his hand and thank him some day!

It's t-shirt space travel.

huh? LOL .... I'm guessing that what we have here is a generation gap .... You're probably just too young to have any idea how ridiculous this sounds.

Riding the roller-coaster at Disneyland is for the t-shirt--about the entertainment. Blasting off in a spaceship and seeing the earth from outer space could hardly be described as "entertaining". But I'll tell you what. If I manage to get the 200k together I'll send you an email so you can watch it on TV.... don't forget to record it so you can "relive" the moment.... LOL

<mental note: bring M&M's>

R..

 

[Mike Veitch]

You know....I was just thinking. Scubaboard has 50000 members. If we could get 2-3 thousand members to all donate a doable amount of money we (or scubaboard) could buy one ticket and raffle it off here.

How 'bout it guys..... anyone game for this?

R..

Or each of those people could send me $1 for my bday comin up! Whats one dollar??

 

[ffestpirate]

Would that need Tech training? How big a pony would they need? Bailout options?

Excellent point!!! LMAO