2 thoughts on “Rollout Roundup”

  1. Looks to be a very beautiful bird. You know, with all the crap going on with regards to the socialist takeover of Washington and the woes at NASA, it sure is good to see what entrepreneurs with a dream can accomplish. I sincerely wish these guys the best of luck during testing and hopefully commercial service will begin soon.

  2. I also wish Scaled and Virgin the very best and yes, these will be great trips. But Branson should stop making invidious comparisons with NASA – viz the Sydney Morning Herald 8th December (http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/geek-in-space-sky-high-ticket-price-to-leave-earth-behind-20091208-kgh4.html): “NASA spent billions upon billions of dollars on space travel and has only managed to send 480 people,” Branson said. “We’re literally hoping to send thousands of people into space over the next couple of years”. Comparing orbital and cis-lunar spaceflight at 17,000 mph or greater, to a short hop above the stratosphere is either ignorant or dishonest. Orbital spaceflight requires energies around 10 times a suborbital trajectory. The only person qualified to make private-industry comparisons with NASA is Elon Musk, and even he has upgraded his earlier cost estimates for the Falcons. (And that is with the benefit of previous public-domain NASA R&D such as re-entry heat shield design.) Branson should stick to honest and accurate publicity wherever possible.

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