Tag: Richard Branson

Branson Touts Environmentally Benign Rubber Burning Engine

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Doug Messier
on May 13, 2013, at 11:22 am
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SpaceShipTwo in powered flight. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)

SpaceShipTwo burning rubber — literally. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)

While in Singapore for an environmental summit organized by the Carbon War Room charity he founded, Virgin Galactic Founder Richard Branson touted the environmental friendliness of his rubber burning SpaceShipTwo vehicle:

British billionaire Richard Branson today said that rocket-powered space tourism flights by his firm Virgin Galactic would have only a minor impact on climate change….

“We have reduced the (carbon emission) cost of somebody going into space from something like two weeks of New York’s electricity supply… To less than the cost of a economy round-trip from Singapore to London,” Branson told reporters in Singapore…..

“New technology can dramatically reduce the carbon output and that is the challenge we have set ourselves,” added Branson.

The SS2′s lightweight carbon-fibre body will also “reduce fuel burn dramatically”, he said.

Well, that’s interesting. Now, where to begin?

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The Power of the Suborbital Experiments Market is Growing

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on May 10, 2013, at 5:29 pm
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SpaceShipTwo in its first powered flight over Mojave.

SpaceShipTwo in its first powered flight over Mojave.

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

Last week, I got to see close-up views of the power of the emerging suborbital space industry in two very different locations some 300 miles apart.

Monday was all about SpaceShipTwo, which lit its engine for the first time over the dusty Mojave Desert and provided viewers on the ground with a 16-second display of flames and black smoke. The little space plane soared skyward above its WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane before gliding to a perfect landing on the center line of Runway 30 at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

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Reserve Your SpaceShipTwo Seat Now — Big Price Increase Coming Soon

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on April 29, 2013, at 9:09 pm
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Sir Richard Branson and daughter, Holly, look through the window of a SpaceShipTwo shell. (Photo credit: Mark Greenberg/Virgin Galactic)

Sir Richard Branson and daughter, Holly, look through the window of a SpaceShipTwo shell. (Photo credit: Mark Greenberg/Virgin Galactic)

Although Virgin Galactic has promised to eventually lower prices on its suborbital space tourism flights aboard SpaceShipTwo, it looks like prices are actually going up 25 percent in the near term.

In an interview broadcast Monday night on KABC-TV 7 News Los Angeles, Branson said a seat on the suborbital space plane would now cost $250,000 — an increase of $50,000 from the price the company has been advertising for eight years.

Now, does that seem a bit counter-intuitive, wouldn’t it? Absolutely. But, this is actually a clever marketing move. How so? Now, you really didn’t think I’d tell you before the break, did you?

Read on.

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Doug Messier
on April 27, 2013, at 10:35 am
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Welcome_to_mojave_north_low

CORRECTION: The airport did set up a viewing area for the public. They just didn’t tell people about it clearly.

The Mojave Air & Space Port’s website has a somewhat cryptic notice on the front page of its website:

Mojave Air & Space Port strives to preserve the privacy of our many clients and their flight research objectives. We work with our clients to post post mission outcomes in a timely manner. While many in the press and non-affiliate blogs are reporting an event in Mojave on Monday 29 April the Mojave Air & Space Port is not sponsoring a public or press related event.  We cannot guarantee a date or time to monitor a test because tests occur when three critical items come together: the vehicle is ready, the weather can support and the test and airspace has been allocated.

Huh?

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Branson: SpaceShipTwo Flight Planned for Next Monday

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on April 23, 2013, at 3:05 pm
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SpaceShipTwo Cold Flow Test
Branson tells the Las Vegas Sun that SpaceShipTwo will break the sound barrier next Monday:

That’s your Virgin Galactic project. What’s ahead for that?

We’re hoping to break the sound barrier. That’s planned Monday. It will be a historic day. This is going to be Virgin Galactic’s year. We’ll break the sound barrier Monday and from there, we build up through the rest of the year, finally going into space near the end of the year. I’ll be on the first official flight, which we look to have in the first quarter of next year. We’re doing a number of test flights into space first.

Whitesides: Powered SpaceShipTwo Flights Coming “Very Soon”

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Doug Messier
on March 12, 2013, at 11:14 am
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George Whitesides

George Whitesides

Virgin Galactic is looking at powered flights into space by the end of this year with commercial ones with paying passengers in 2014, according to Virgin Galactic CEO and President George Whitesides.

The Virgin Galactic chief made the comments in a Q&A interview that was put out at the end of last month by XOJET, a private jet company that has established an exclusive private air Concierge Access service to serve Virgin Galactic’s exclusive group of nearly 600 future astronauts.

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Not Many Billionaires Focused on Commercial Space

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Doug Messier
on March 5, 2013, at 9:22 am
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Richard Branson and then-Gov. Bill Richardson. (Credit: Douglas Messier)

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

Forbes has released its annual list of the world’s billionaires. There are a record 1,426 individuals with an aggregate net worth of $5.4 trillion in the world. The table below shows the tiny handful of this group — nine individuals — who are currently or have been previously involved in space projects.

Rank Name Net Worth (Billions) Age Nationality Company/
Business		 Space Project(s)

19

 Jeff Bezos $25.2 49 American Amazon.com CEO, Founder Blue Origin

20

 Larry Page $23.0 39 American Google CEO, Co-founder Google Lunar X Prize, Planetary Resources
21 Sergey Brin $22.8 39 American Google Co-founder Google Lunar X Prize
53 Paul Allen $15.0 60 American Microsoft Co-founder Stratolaunch, SpaceShipOne
SETI array
138 Eric Schmidt $8.2 57 American Google Chairman Google Lunar X Prize, Planetary Resources
272 Richard Branson $4.6 62 British Virgin Group CEO, Founder Virgin Galactic
527 Elon Musk $2.7 41 American PayPal, Tesla Motors, Solar City SpaceX
831 Guy Laliberte $1.8 53 Canadian Cirque du Soleil Space tourist
1031 H. Ross Perot, Jr. $1.4 54 American computer services, real estate Planetary Resources

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New Informed Consent Bill Adds Insurance Requirement, Removes Gross Negligence Standard

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Doug Messier
on January 24, 2013, at 2:16 pm
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IMG_3041
A proposed compromise on New Mexico’s informed consent law provides limited liability protections to spacecraft manufacturers, suppliers and operators while adding an $1 million insurance coverage requirement and altering one of the three conditions under which injured parties can sue. Only spacecraft operators such as Virgin Galactic are covered under the current law.

One of the most significant changes in the proposed law involves the removal of gross negligence as one of the conditions that would void legal protections for manufacturers, suppliers and operators. The law currently states that a spacecraft operator would be liable if it

commits an act or omission that constitutes gross negligence or willful, wanton disregard for the safety of the participant and that act or omission proximately causes injury, damage or death to the participant. [Emphasis mine]

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Spaceport America — Hanging By a Proverbial Thread

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Doug Messier
on December 31, 2012, at 1:14 pm
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“So when you’re near me, darling can’t you hear me
S. O. S.
The love you gave me, nothing else can save me
S. O. S.
When you’re gone
How can I even try to go on?
When you’re gone
Though I try how can I carry on?”

– ABBA, “S.O.S.”

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

The Save Our Spaceport (S.O.S.) Coalition is up and running with a website to support for an extension of the informed consent law for Virgin Galactic and other future tenants of Spaceport America.

So, after lengthy negotiations, years of construction, extravagant promises of new jobs and businesses by politicians and a British billionaire, and the investment of $209 million in taxpayer’s money, New Mexico faces the following stark choice in the new year:

Sign away all the rights of passengers and their heirs to sue for injuries or deaths aboard space vehicles except in cases of gross negligence or intentional harm

or

Face the prospect of having an empty spaceport miles from anywhere with no discernible use when Virgin Galactic picks up and goes elsewhere and no one else will move in.

This would be funny (or even farcical) if it didn’t involve so much public money.

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Titanic Star Kate Winslet Headed for Space with Virgin Galactic — NOT

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Doug Messier
on December 28, 2012, at 7:36 am
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Kate Winslet during the dedication ceremony for the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space in Oct. 2011. (Credit: Douglas Messier)

UPDATE: Apparently this story isn’t true. “A rep for the Academy-Award winning actress tells E! News that this story is false while adding that it “was invented a while ago” but has since ‘been adapted to fit this week’s events.’ Wow, British tabloids just going around making up shit about celebrities. Who knew?

Congratulations are in order for newlywed and latest confirmed celebritynaut Kate Winslet.

The “Titanic” star got hitched earlier this month to Ned Rocknroll, the Richard Branson nephew formerly known as Ned Abel Smith. Media reports in Britain indicate that Leonardo DiCaprio walked his “Titanic” co-star down the aisle during the secret ceremony in New York.

According to a breathless exclusive in The Sun, Winslet has a ticket to space aboard Branson’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle, now undergoing flight testing at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

The Sun is a little confused about precisely how Winslet got the ticket. A photo caption claims that Rocknroll, who works part-time for Virgin Galactic, bought a $200,000 ticket for his new bride.

The story claims that Branson gave the ticket to Winslet for free for rescuing his mother from an August 2011 house fire on the billionaire’s Necker Island resort.

Winslet, who is on her third marriage, and Rocknroll, who is on his second, met during that stay on the island and hit it off.  They both attended the dedication ceremony for the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space at Spaceport America in October 2011.