Comments on: Virgin Galactic Launches the White Knight 2, CG is There

By: Billie

Billie — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:38:45 +0000

Right i dont no what any of you are on about but the plane does look very kewl . . . . . .

By: Don

Don — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:17:03 +0000

space? more people have been to the moon then have been below 2000 meters in our oceans. We know more about space then we do about whats in our own oceans.

By: Czar

Czar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:47:57 +0000

I love this plane! It’s so revolutional…And I love the Mojave Desert, too (LOL!)

By: Josh A.

Josh A. — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:25:09 +0000

@Aaron Uh, his house has 30 solar panels on top and they’re adding wind turbines too. He uses a hybrid car. He buys carbon offsets when he flies. It’s extremely unfair to say he doesn’t act what he teaches; he does. And beside that, climate change won’t suddenly go away because people blame Al Gore for it; we need to act on it, not moan about what we think that other people are doing (when they aren’t).

@napa It’s actually a pretty low carbon footprint; SS2 merely accelerates to Mach 3 and is actually powered for a very short amount of time until it uses momentum to reach apogee. WK2 is just a carrier aircraft. It’s like the situation with the Space Shuttle: people see the huge exhaust plume and scream “CO2!!!!” when most of it’s water vapour from the main engines (although during the first 2 minutes of the total 8 1/2 minutes of powered flight, the non-eco solid rocket boosters provide above 82% of thrust, so yes, it’s not all good). But despite the non-econess of the SRBs, the total C02 emissions from all the shuttle launch exhausts over the period a year of shuttle operations is very small as a percentage of US emissions (the estimate for the total CO2 emissions from total energy use and rocket exhaust from 2009-2020 of the new Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles of the up-and-coming Project Constellation to land Americans back on the Moon and onto Mars is estimated in NASA’s final report at 0.004% of all US emissions from 2009-2020). So for the huge environmental, medical, technological, inspirational, and other benefits and thousands of spin-offs of the space programme, it’s not even a matter worth discussing – it’s so insignificant.

By: Josh A.

Josh A. — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:05:39 +0000

Well yeah, or adding insult to injury . It’s a bit sad that Virgin Galactic are charging so much, they’re really manipulating their early entry to the market – Burt Rutan has hinted (to my interpretation) that they’re making a 90% profit margin: “…which is pretty good, when you can operate it successfully at a tenth of that” (from TEDTalks seminar – see YouTube).

By: Josh A.

Josh A. — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:02:43 +0000

SS2 goes into space (if that’s what you were talking about; technically speaking WK2 is sub-orbital too – all planes that don’t travel the whole way around the world are, but usually the words ’sub-orbital’ and ‘orbital’ are reserved for spaceflights). A sub-orbital spaceflight *is* still a spaceflight, and it is in the vacuum of space.

By: u

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:22:01 +0000

http://s39.phot...e158/vasago321/

By: brad

brad — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:05:09 +0000

Does anyone know if this is a variable yaw dual fuselage plane, or just dual fuselage?

By: james

james — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:38:53 +0000

I think TC should be on the first flight. Let’s send MA. That would put his physical body at the same elevation as his ego lol.

By: Rajiv Singh

Rajiv Singh — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:30:11 +0000

Hopefully will explode suborbital with a couple of rich scumbags (lawyers first please).

By: Eric Williams

Eric Williams — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:29:09 +0000

All I can say is awesome! Space is till the final frontier. Stuff like this has even inspired me to go for my own record. http://www.FliteRecord.com

By: John Kavanagh

John Kavanagh — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:46:05 +0000

“It’s a sub-orbital plane – you’re not in the vacuum of space.”

Incorrect.

SpaceShipTwo, while sub-orbital, will cross the internationally recognized boundary in to space and will definitely be in free fall through the vacuum of space, albeit only for a few minutes.

Altitude is the important indicator of hardness of vacuum, not necessarily whether a spacecraft is going on a suborbital or orbital trajectory.

Even as far back as the 1940s, Nazi Germany’s V-2s crossed in to space on some of their experimental launches.

By: ap

ap — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:28:55 +0000

Another pic of it http://twitpic.com/5pm2 posted by iJustine

By: Aaron Stannard

Aaron Stannard — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:23:28 +0000

It’s probably a smaller carbon footprint than Al Gore’s 40,000 sqft house.

By: Aaron Stannard

Aaron Stannard — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:22:35 +0000

It’s a sub-orbital plane – you’re not in the vacuum of space.

By: Doug K.

Doug K. — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:16:25 +0000

The airplane does not go into space. The spaceship is mounted between the two fuselages and is launched from there. It is not complete yet.

By: julie

julie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:59:32 +0000

space seems to be this season’s must-have accessory!!!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:55:33 +0000

if I’m going into vacuum I’d want a thicker fuselage than that of a normal plane

By: napa

napa — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:55:25 +0000

I think the rich need to start looking at the carbon footprint this venture will cause.

By: Bold Son » Blog Archive » Put the Rich Into Outer Space

Bold Son » Blog Archive » Put the Rich Into Outer Space — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:54:16 +0000

[...] Virgin Galactic Launches the White Knight 2 Virgin Galactic is Sir Richard Branson’s latest venture which should put the rich into outer space where they can no longer harm us, the poor. [...]

By: Colin

Colin — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:50:43 +0000

Does not look very safe? please do tell how you can tell if something is safe just by looking at it???

By: Amit

Amit — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:44:36 +0000

It has a killer look. It looks bit small for serious training!

By: Kevin K.

Kevin K. — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:40:38 +0000

Virgin Galactic spaceship: Wow! or Meh [VOTE] http://snurl.com/36lxj [www_thriveorfail_com]

By: Jagtesh Chadha

Jagtesh Chadha — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:31:43 +0000

“Virgin Galactic is Sir Richard Branson’s latest venture which should put the rich into outer space where they can no longer harm us, the poor.”

That way a moon-resort would mean an icing on the cake for us, the poor.

By: Vick

Vick — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:13:40 +0000

Hahaha, I loved the, “…put the rich into outer space where they can no longer harm us, the poor.” Haha…

Cheers,
V