An artist conception of the WhiteKnightTwo hauling aloft SpaceShipTwo (sold separately). Image credit: Virgin Galactic
That’s an excellent question. Well, you’ve read all the hype, now for a little perspective….
What Virgin’s WhiteKnightTwo Really Means to the Future of Space
Popular Mechanics
Barbara S. Peterson provides an overview of the potential (and some of the possible limitations) of Virgin Galactic’s space tourism plans. It’s an excellent piece, but I won’t excerpt it here for fear that the context might be lost. Read the whole piece.
Colby Cosh: Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is where hype meets hope
National Post (Canada)
As you might guess from the title, Colby is a tad skeptical….
“As a species we’re no closer to truly routine space travel that we were last week—despite the high-flown words of Branson’s address to the attendees…
“Branson has the vague plans to design a SpaceShipThree capable of orbital flight, but the relatively humble materials and fuels he is using for SpaceShipTwo won’t cut the mustard. If it’s possible to get ordinary civilians into orbit through sheer marketing ability, Branson is the man to bet on.”
mr. Simberg wrote the ISS article, WKII article has “by Barbara S. Peterson” on it
Oh, and the sceptics of suborbitals, i think this is a must read:
http://selenianboondocks.blogspot.com/2007/04/myth-of-25x.html
In addition, somehow all the sceptics seem to forget that that Alan Shephard, the first american astronaut, flew _suborbital_ on Freedom 7.
Ummm…that piece is by Barbara Peterson, not me.
Yikes!
Sorry Rand. I misread the byline. Must have been looking at the link to your ISS story. I wrote this at the end of a pretty long day.
Apologies. Thanks so much for the corrections.