BeechTalk - BT - Virgin Orbit Success, designed in Long Beach, CA.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Jul 2021, 18:52

It's a technological achievement for sure, but we're still in the Wright Brothers stage of development compared to whoever is operating those "Tic Tac" UAP's caught by military imagery. Of course it hasn't been ruled out that those are ours re Ben Rich's controversial statements. My point is great achievement, but I wouldn't start feeling too superior about it in a galactic sense.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Jul 2021, 06:20

Username Protected wrote:

Blowing up satellites has definitely been conceived before, and even done before.

Yeah, by those international good citizens, the Chinese.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Jul 2021, 10:23

Username Protected wrote:

Yes, following the example of?

It's not like Russia, India, or the US haven't done the same.

Night vs Day differences as far as space junk is concerned (although I’m not familiar with any Indian ASAT attempts). If you want to educate yourself on the matter read the scientific report I posted on the first page.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 11 Jul 2021, 08:43

...and today's the day!

https://youtu.be/RTpWYWIfP7Y

I'd go.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 11 Jul 2021, 11:45

Nice landing...!

Is Sir Richard an EAA member?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 11 Jul 2021, 11:48

Username Protected wrote:

Nice landing...!

Is Sir Richard an EAA member?

Is he a BT member?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 11 Jul 2021, 11:50

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/VGX1

Username Protected · **Posted:** 12 Jul 2021, 17:41

Username Protected wrote:

Is he a BT member?

I think he is uses "J. Kingston" as his user name.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 12 Jul 2021, 20:53

Blowing up satellites and private individuals launching into space; we have entered an era
where James Bond meets Captain Kirk.

I love it. :thumbup:

Username Protected · **Posted:** 13 Jul 2021, 01:53

So this seems to be the first time maybe I haven’t seen the inhabitants/ passengers of a high altitude / low orbit vehicle wearing a pressure suit with helmet. Why is that? Seems like depressurization of the capsule would be a possibility without a plan B

Username Protected · **Posted:** 13 Jul 2021, 01:58

Username Protected wrote:

So this seems to be the first time maybe I haven’t seen the inhabitants/ passengers of a high altitude / low orbit vehicle wearing a pressure suit with helmet. Why is that? Seems like depressurization of the capsule would be a possibility without a plan B

I had the same question. Wonder if Jeff B will be wearing the same type of suit. Maybe it’s a billionaire thing. :shrug:

Username Protected · **Posted:** 13 Jul 2021, 07:03

Username Protected wrote:

So this seems to be the first time maybe I haven’t seen the inhabitants/ passengers of a high altitude / low orbit vehicle wearing a pressure suit with helmet. Why is that? Seems like depressurization of the capsule would be a possibility without a plan B

Shuttle astronauts before the challenger didn't wear pressure suits.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 13 Jul 2021, 08:20

Seems there may be some confusion regarding Branson's companies. Virgin Orbit is in business to launch small satellites whereas Virgin Galactic is in business for space tourism. This post started out with kudos to Virgin Orbit but I'm sure Branson would like kudos for Galactic as well.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/18/richard ... m-747.html

https://www.virgingalactic.com/

Username Protected · **Posted:** 13 Jul 2021, 11:05

I wish he was using a technology that could be extended to orbit, but it doesn't look like that to me. So its more of an amusement park ride than real technical progress toward more manned space. No problem if people are willing to pay, but its not very exciting to me.

If I had that much money to spend on fun, a few hours in a Mig sounds like more fun.

SpaceX is doing orbit. Blue Origins technology can lead to orbit - even if they are just doing short hops for now.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 13 Jul 2021, 11:11

Username Protected wrote:

I wish he was using a technology that could be extended to orbit, but it doesn't look like that to me. So its more of an amusement park ride than real technical progress toward more manned space. No problem if people are willing to pay, but its not very exciting to me.

I concur. It is a very short joy ride that is basically a few minutes of zero G. I predict the suborbital space business will be short lived and fade away. The juice just isn't worth the squeeze.

Quote:

Blue Origins technology can lead to orbit - even if they are just doing short hops for now.

Can it? I wasn't sure that was the case. Orbit is *way* harder and requires a completely different set of tradeoffs than suborbital.

It won't be too long before SpaceX can put a bunch of people into orbit on a Starship "hotel". They probably can do that for less cost per seat than Virgin and deliver a far more interesting experience.

The ideas about colonizing Mars are, however, misguided.

Mike C.