Virgin Galactic: General discussion (2)

[Star One]

Virgin Galactic has had plenty of time to be the only game in town. Blue Origin is catching up though. I wonder what a ticket on Blue's New Shepard will cost? If it is a lot lower VG could find themselves fielding an economically obsolete system. Raising the initial ticket price wouldn't be a very competitive thing to do.

What's the betting they do special offers/competitions through Amazon for the average person to get tickets on BO.

Yeah and you can bet the ticket prices will be competitive.  Bezos runs Amazon after all...the business is very agressive.  I wouldn't put it past him to try to undercut VG.  But that is competition   Ultimately it is a good thing - for those that survive it.

Plus they will probably make promotional stuff like documentaries about it on the Amazon Prime channel.

TBH I'd much rather get into a New Shepherd than SS2 for a trip to space at this time.

[parabolicarc]

"Virgin Galactic is planning another price increase for suborbital flights. Richard Branson said in an interview that the company will soon raise prices for suborbital tickets on SpaceShipTwo to $300,000 from $250,000. Branson didn't disclose the reason for the increase, but said prices would decrease later as the company built more vehicles and operated from more spaceports. Virgin increased ticket prices to $250,000 from $200,000 shortly after the first powered SpaceShipTwo flight in 2013. [The Observer]"

From my SpaceNews daily update today!

Imho this is just... 'teh f*ck?' Imho they need to start flying first (preferably without killing people) and then see where they are at. This is just a shameful attempt to put your failings on the customers wallet!

The reality is they're not going to make money on the space tourism side of the business. This is probably an attempt to close the gap; whether it does that, I don't know. If they're profitable, it will be in other areas like LauncherOne and XS-1 and the Boom supersonic jet. They also have a deal with SNC for crewed Dream Chaser if and when that ever becomes a reality.

Branson says the company is working on how to deflect asteroids. I don't know if I believe that, but if it's true, it might be another project that (a) looks good from a PR standpoint (saving humanity) and (b) has some potential to bring in government funding.

I'm skeptical about Boom. There's some serious question about whether the market is there for a jet carrying 40 people at that price range. And I'm not sure exactly what The Spaceship Company will be doing in the project. I'm not sure it has the expertise to build a supersonic passenger plane that has to go through FAA certification.

[Star One]

Virgin's SpaceShipTwo readied for new ‘space renaissance’

Virgin Galactic is positioning itself as a key player in the new “space renaissance” as it returns SpaceShipTwo to flight testing, chalks up commitments for its small satellite launch service, and teams up with Northrop Grumman on the US military's XS-1 spaceplane programme.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/virgins-spaceshiptwo-readied-for-new-space-renaiss-424174/

[Star One]

TheSpaceshipCompany –  ‏@TheSpaceshipCo

#WhiteKnightTwo arrived at @Spaceport_NM yesterday (on Flight #200), kicking off a busy week of ground/air exercises

https://mobile.twitter.com/TheSpaceshipCo/status/722511532454735872

[Star One]

Jeff Foust –  ‏@jeff_foust

Steve Isakowitz, Virgin Galactic: looking to start SpaceShipTwo captive carry and glide flights later this summer.

https://mobile.twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/724663331349487616

[Kryten]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-08/virgin-galactic-to-restart-flight-tests-of-commercial-spaceship

Virgin Galactic Ltd., the commercial space company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, is set to resume test flights next month in a new spaceship that replaces the craft that crashed in a fatal accident two years ago.

The company is due to complete ground tests in August and move to testing the vessel in the skies while attached to an aircraft, according to Jonathan Firth, vice president at Virgin Galactic. The spaceship, named Unity, is scheduled to begin the final stage of testing -- independent, fully powered flights -- next year.

[The Amazing Catstronaut]

Obviously good news for Virgin.

For a while I've been assuming Virgin has been playing second fiddle for so long after their initial impetus, that they're not going to achieve many of their original objectives. Perhaps they still won't. But they've evolved so much as a company and have showed so much dogged persistence through hardship, they have no parallel in Newspace and, if anything, are a vastly encouraging hard limit for the potential resilience of newspace programs, given the money to carry on.

I think Virgin Galactic could really find a tidy little market share, after their own way, with their own unique capabilities.

[john smith 19]

Obviously good news for Virgin.

For a while I've been assuming Virgin has been playing second fiddle for so long after their initial impetus, that they're not going to achieve many of their original objectives. Perhaps they still won't.

Time will tell.

But they've evolved so much as a company and have showed so much dogged persistence through hardship, they have no parallel in Newspace and,

If you disregard XCOR and Reaction Engines you might be right.

if anything, are a vastly encouraging hard limit for the potential resilience of newspace programs, given the money to carry on.

I think Virgin Galactic could really find a tidy little market share, after their own way, with their own unique capabilities.

Let's find out.

[baldusi]

SpaceX overcome three straight launch failures before even getting to one successful flight. I would count that as a lot of hardship.

[Kryten]

http://www.virgingalactic.com/faa-ast-awards-virgin-galactic-operator-license-for-spaceshiptwo/

 Virgin Galactic have received an FAA operator licence for SS2, and have started taxi tests with VSS Unity.

[Robotbeat]

It looks like Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic are possibly branching out into helping to develop an SST "mini-Concorde":

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3507765/Sir-Richard-Branson-set-usher-new-era-affordable-supersonic-flights-mini-Concorde.html

R&D possibly through Virgin Galactic and manufacturing through The Spaceship Company.

I just wanted to update:

Branson has said Virgin has options to buy 10 of the jets, which can hold 40 passengers and travel Mach 2.2 (faster than Concorde). It also appears to have longer range than Concorde, much improved efficiency, and significantly reduced cost, allowing trans-pacific flights and costs for the New York to London route no greater than current business class flights ($5000 for round-trip tickets).

If they succeed in all that, I can't see how they WOULDN'T have a business case. The economy has grown a lot since then, especially with a lot more Pacific travel since Concorde was first developed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3507765/Sir-Richard-Branson-set-usher-new-era-affordable-supersonic-flights-mini-Concorde.html

'We can confirm that The Spaceship Company will provide engineering, design and manufacturing services, flight tests and operations and that we have an option on the first 10 airframes. It is still early days and just the start of what you'll hear about our shared ambitions and efforts.'

So that sounds a lot firmer than "we might do a little R&D."

Also, from Boom:

'At our hangar in Denver, we're combining jet engines and carbon fibre, advanced design software and wind tunnel tests.
'We're building our prototype now - and will fly late next year.'

[Robotbeat]

They're building their subcale demonstrator prototype right now.  Will fly next year.

But they'll be unveiling the design in a month from now:

The XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator is our first step toward routine supersonic flight. "Baby Boom," as we like to call her, is the world's first independently developed supersonic jet and the fastest civil aircraft ever made. XB-1 will flight prove the key technologies for practical supersonic flight.

We will unveil the XB-1 design on November 15. First flight is planned for late 2017.

http://boomsupersonic.com/xb-1/

[savuporo]

If they succeed in all that, I can't see how they WOULDN'T have a business case. The economy has grown a lot since then, especially with a lot more Pacific travel since Concorde was first developed.

The business case is pretty much validated by the fact that there is competition in form of Aerion, teaming up with Airbus to do the same, and then there is Spike Aerospace. Whether any of those will work out, time and money will tell

[docmordrid]

Aviation Week has a new story on Boom etc. quoting a $260B market.

Link....

[Comga]

This is really intriguing, but it was not obvious what Boom has to do with Virgin Galactic or Scaled Composites

'We (Virgin) can confirm that The Spaceship Company will provide engineering, design and manufacturing services, flight tests and operations and that we have an option on the first 10 airframes. It is still early days and just the start of what you'll hear about our shared ambitions and efforts.'

Scholl ( of Boom) said: 'We're thrilled to be working with Virgin. It's hard to imagine a better partner for bringing supersonics to market.'

So not directly VG or SC, but close

The article lists ex-astronaut Scott Kelly as being on the advisory board, but the Boom website list Capt. Mark Kelly.  I guess its hard to tell those identical twins apart.

[catdlr]

They're building their subcale demonstrator prototype right now.  Will fly next year.

But they'll be unveiling the design in a month from now:

The XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator is our first step toward routine supersonic flight. "Baby Boom," as we like to call her, is the world's first independently developed supersonic jet and the fastest civil aircraft ever made. XB-1 will flight prove the key technologies for practical supersonic flight.

We will unveil the XB-1 design on November 15. First flight is planned for late 2017.

http://boomsupersonic.com/xb-1/

Here is a video post related:

Supersonic Travel And The Spaceship Company
Virgin Galactic

Published on Nov 16, 2016
Yesterday in Denver, The Spaceship Company’s chairman Doug Shane spoke at Boom’s unveil of its XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator, a subscale prototype of the Boom supersonic passenger airliner. The Spaceship Company is a proud partner of Boom Supersonic and will provide engineering and manufacturing services, along with flight test support and operations. Doug introduced a congratulatory message from Sir Richard Branson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfg1uYQGjzY?t=001

[VDD1991]

Given that the most recent SpaceShipTwo flight surpassed Mach 2, I would not be surprised if SpaceShipTwo reached Mach 3.1 on its next flight because the third powered flight of the VSS Unity showed an improvement over the first two flights in terms of speed attained. I also don't find it hard to imagine SpaceShipTwo breaking the all-time altitude record for a suborbital rocket-powered spaceplane set by SpaceShipOne in late 2004. Do you think SpaceShipTwo could set an altitude record of 400,000 feet?

[envy887]

Given that the most recent SpaceShipTwo flight surpassed Mach 2, I would not be surprised if SpaceShipTwo reached Mach 3.1 on its next flight because the third powered flight of the VSS Unity showed an improvement over the first two flights in terms of speed attained. I also don't find it hard to imagine SpaceShipTwo breaking the all-time altitude record for a suborbital rocket-powered spaceplane set by SpaceShipOne in late 2004. Do you think SpaceShipTwo could set an altitude record of 400,000 feet?

SS2 is unlikely to be able to even reach 100 km (328k ft). Virgin is currently aiming for 50 miles (80 km, 264k ft).

[docmordrid]

Virgin Galactic @virgingalactic

"The long term vision is to use suborbital space travel to traverse the globe at unprecedented speed. Weve been going the same speed in aircrafts for a long time. Theres no reason technologically why we cant go 5 times faster." Our CEO @gtwhitesides on @BBCRadio4 this morning https://t.co/EMZBHw9EuP

https://twitter.com/virgingalactic/status/1145645031778344960

In October, 2017 they showed this concept in Saudi Arabia

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/virgingalactic/status/1247580979398672384

This Thursday we’re back with another #ScienceWithVirginGalactic LIVE on YouTube. It’s a 20min Space Chat for children of all ages on How To Design A Spaceship! Learn about how a spaceship gets to space and back safely. Subscribe to our YouTube here virg.in/TrV