> The ship uses rocket power to get into space, but glides back to Earth and lands on a runway, like the space shuttle would do. Does that mean it can't do a go around?
Correct, they have one chance to land. (But the runway is REALLY long.)
The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight
101–110 of 269 posts
Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight
#102Brilliant well written article. Not without bias, but you can see through the words on the page and into the immense pressure that team at Virgin Galactic must have been under to get their boss into space and to beat Bezos, all for the inflated ego of one man. Branson did put his life on the line to achieve that accolade though, which was a gutsy move.
The whole exercise was dumb. Flying up and then down on a rocket is a difference in degree, rather than type, from taking a ride on the Vomit Comet. Orbit -- half way to anywhere -- that's the accomplishment.
I also don't think people realize how close to the earth these people still were. Take a globe, hold your finger as close as you can to it without touching, and that's about as high as Bezos and Branson went. As you said, orbital is what matters, and a suborbital flight around the Karman line doesn't mean much.
Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
As much as I hate to admit it, "ego" has driven so much innovation in space that it was probably inevitable that something like this would happen.
We used to have smart guys in competition. Edison vs. Tesla. Not we have rich business savy guys with not much of a science background holding the cards. I have met very few wealthy men, young or old, who had great ideas. It's almost like the money dulls their brains? And their vanity projects are usually way out of their wheelhouse. It's the same with Writers. I have read very few wealthy guys shop could write. They…
Apparently Edison was much more of a businessman than his legacy suggests - which was intentional on his part. Similar to Bill Gates, they both started as engineers but made their money organizing people.
See https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/28/the-real-natur...
Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight
#104While I'm super excited about the future of space tourism, I dread a "Hindenburg" catastrophe that stops the whole idea for a generation.
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Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
It still amazes me that anyone still believes that the pictures they see on TV are in any way real. 100% of content on TV is fake. I used to say except the news, but now I'm not even able to trust that. If it's a commercial, definitely fake. If it's a TV show, 100% fake. Games shows shoot 5 episodes in a day, so when they say "last week's winner" it was last hour's.
sports!
yeah, you're right, sports have never been rigged
you might of well have responded with the one word reply of "Wrestling!"
Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
OK. That's it! I draw the line at Guy Fieri slander! That's not fakery. That's every classic car owner's dream. You get to show off the hot rod and not put miles on it. I am sure he does plenty of joyriding in that thing. Guy is anything but phony. He is actually one of thee more wholesome dudes on television ATM. We need more Guy Fieri's.
Heh. He’s probably a nice guy... and his example is just the one that came first to mind. It irks me people like Branson are blasé about faking something they don’t have to fake. He’s probably dedicated to the environment even if his activities and businesses aren’t friendly to the environment. But just faking it like he really did it, he carried on with the ruse during his little speech too. Like, why?
He knew he was going to get roasted in the media for his "save-the-environment for thee, a trip to space for me" schtick.
Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
It still amazes me that anyone still believes that the pictures they see on TV are in any way real. 100% of content on TV is fake. I used to say except the news, but now I'm not even able to trust that. If it's a commercial, definitely fake. If it's a TV show, 100% fake. Games shows shoot 5 episodes in a day, so when they say "last week's winner" it was last hour's.
Talk Shows are the worst for this. Many of them have a rehearsal with the guests. It's no surprise that all of the guests have amazingly funny or interesting stories about every topic the host brings up. Once you know this is how they work, it's impossible to unsee it when you're watching them. I'm sorry I ruined talk shows for anyone here who may like them.
Whether it is the preshow pre-interview or the post editing decisions, interviews are hard to trust as well now.
I say this as someone that has been involved in all of it. However, the pre-interview is actually less about necessarily leading the interview but about helping the interview avoiding the dead air, blank stares, um, uhs, wells, type of stuff. Also, it is a great way to calm the nerves of those being interviewed if they are not normally in front of a camera which can be very intimidating to people telling a story they may already be nervous about. Trust me, you should be thankful for them.
It's the post editing decisions that you can really get yourself into trouble. You can totally make a sane person sound insane, or totally change the interview. Anything that is not live must be questioned in how much you trust the producers to actually allow the interview to go out as it was rather than chopped up to fit the producer's agenda. If I was to be interviewed, I would make part of my conditions to the interview being that I would be allowed to have my own camera/audio that could record uninterrupted to be able to counter any shenanigans in the edit bay.
Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
SpaceShipTwo (and SpaceShipOne) are fascinating to me because they're so _not_ general purpose vehicles, yet are sold and in most cases perceived as such. SS1 was conceived by one of the most creative designers in aviation as a point solution for the X-Prize contest - the minimal design/implementation to precisely solve that problem in the most cost effective way possible (as detailed in "Test Gods"). This cobbled to…
SS2 is going to be a real horrorshow idea, one way or another.
trivia tidbit: the "nadsat" language invented for a clockwork orange incorporates russian. the intention was for "horrorshow" to be an english version of хорошо / khorosho, translated as good or OK.
Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight
#109Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
OK. That's it! I draw the line at Guy Fieri slander! That's not fakery. That's every classic car owner's dream. You get to show off the hot rod and not put miles on it. I am sure he does plenty of joyriding in that thing. Guy is anything but phony. He is actually one of thee more wholesome dudes on television ATM. We need more Guy Fieri's.
Heh. He’s probably a nice guy... and his example is just the one that came first to mind. It irks me people like Branson are blasé about faking something they don’t have to fake. He’s probably dedicated to the environment even if his activities and businesses aren’t friendly to the environment. But just faking it like he really did it, he carried on with the ruse during his little speech too. Like, why?
Because he's a professional narcissist, and everything narcissists do is attention-seeking and fake.
There are a number of books about Branson, and they all underline that he's "not a detail person." As in, he literally doesn't understand what he's doing a lot of the time.
He's good at surrounding himself with competent people who make things happen. He's also good at sales - talking a good game, being charming and optimistic in front of the cameras, and getting people to put up money.
But after some early successes - especially the record company and recording studios - his record of delivery is mediocre, with not a few expensive failures.
With Branson everything is a front and not as solid as it appears to be, and he has a long list of former associates, clients, and partners who are not as impressed as they were initially.
That's not ideal for a conventional business. But when you're dealing with experimental aircraft full of rich people having a very risky adventure, the potential for disaster is spectacular.
People have already died on this project, and it looks as if it's only a matter of time before it literally blows up in someone's face in an extremely expensive way.