…will he continue it tonight?
Yes. Next question?
Category Archives: Business
OPEC
Why and how we should break it now.
It’s been a major thorn in the world’s side for decades, including fueling Islamic terrorism.
Does Virgin Galactic Have A License Problem?
It would be nice if they did. That would be a lot easier to deal with than their real problem, which is propulsion.
As Jeff explains, there’s a lot of misunderstanding about the nature of spaceflight regulation in the US, both here and across the pond. As I noted on Twitter:
Let's be very clear: The FAA has NO STATUTORY BASIS 2 withhold a license from VG with regard to passenger safety. No test flights required.
— SafeNotAnOption (@SafeNotAnOption) January 26, 2014
The purpose of VG's test flights is to satisfy THEMSELVES that the vehicle is safe for their customers. The FAA DOES NOT care, legally.
— SafeNotAnOption (@SafeNotAnOption) January 26, 2014
To emphasize, you could have 1% chance of survival, and the FAA will STILL ISSUE THE LICENSE, as long as you've been made aware of that.
— SafeNotAnOption (@SafeNotAnOption) January 26, 2014
This, from Jeff’s article, is a good summation of the license situation, despite the recent misleading stories about it:
The emphasis on a lack of a commercial launch license, then, is something of a red herring. Virgin doesn’t need a launch license now to continue its testing regime, isn’t late now in receiving one, and given current law, there’s no reason to believe the Virgin won’t receive one before it plans to begin commercial flights, so long as as it can demonstrate the vehicle’s safety to the uninvolved public.
Yes.
[Afternoon update]
Jeff Foust also has a summary of the London Times article that’s behind their paywall, with some corrections.
[Update a couple minutes later]
If the reporting is true, and they really are finally running away from the hybrid, and particularly the rubber hybrid, as fast as possible, I wonder what the implications of this are for Sierra Nevada? Will they continue to promote hybrids, and will they still use one in Dream Chaser assuming it flies in three years? I’d bail on it myself and just buy something from XCOR, but they have a lot of PR invested in the technology, thanks to Jim Benson.
The Washington Post
Looks like Bezos really is shaking things up. I’ll be curious to see what it does for their circulation.
New Business Creation
We’re not number one:
A new study by the World Bank and the International Finance Corp. found that the U.S. ranks well behind countries like Rwanda, Belarus and Azerbaijan in terms of how easy it is for an entrepreneur to start a new business. The U.S. did narrowly beat Uzbekistan, though.
So we have that going for us.
Space Journalism
Why oh why do reporters imagine that cosmologists know anything about spacecraft?
Dr Xing Li, an Aberystwyth University expert on astrophysics and cosmology, said as a scientist it would be “beautiful” to be one of SpaceShipTwo’s privileged passengers.
But SpaceShipTwo travels at a super-sonic 2,500mph – more than four times faster than a passenger jet – and Dr Li believes it’s difficult to imagine anything that goes at that speed becoming affordable.
He said: “Now we don’t have supersonic flights because of the cost issue. At the moment I don’t see that it will be possible even in 30 or 40 years. It will only happen if we have some technological advance that would bring down the cost.”
Ask a frickin’ engineer, not a scientist.
Famous Movie Quotes
Graphically depicted. Funny stuff.
Up With The Poor
Down with the LA Times.
It really is embarrassing that we have such an awful newspaper in the second-largest city in the country. Of course, the one in the largest city is pretty bad, too.
ObamaCare
Resolved: It is now beyond rescue.
The question is, will what replaces it be even worse?
Scaled’s Motor-Test Logs
Doug Messier analyzes.
Though I’d like to be, it’s hard to be optimistic about Virgin getting to space this year.