MnAstro Forums

This forum is too quiet.

I follow Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites a bit, but I have not followed Suborbital at all. I didn't realize they have a club: http://www.spaceadventures.com/index.cf ... ub.welcome.

They also have the cheapest space flight ticket around at $102,000, and they will launch from exotic locations like United Arab Emerites and Singapore. That means at the yearly club membership fee of $980, you can earn a free space flight in 105 years! All you have to do is invest heavily in cybernetics and medical nanotechnology to make sure you are still alive to claim the ticket.

Or maybe buy $980 in lottery tickets a year for a better chance at something you can use in your lifetime...

One of the early astronauts was asked if it bothered him to think that he was about to climb on top of 1,000,000 lbs of rocket fuel and have someone light a match. He said no, what concerned him most was the knowledge that everything on that rocket was built by the lowest bidder.

My two questions are how well funded they are and how experienced their design staff is. We have all seen the photos from the early years of rocketry where missle after missle blew up on or near the launch pad. I guess I would like to know they have learned from past mistakes and see a few successful launches before plunking down my money.

I'd like to know the same type of stuff about them. Seems to be a little hard finding out anything past the drawing board though.

I am looking forward to New Mexico as a closer alternative, even if the price is still unrealistic for my budget over the next twenty years.

Spaceport America receives FAA license
Posted: Tue, Dec 16, 2008, 7:57 AM ET (1257 GMT)
Spaceport America, a new commercial spaceport in New Mexico that will be the home of Virgin Galactic, received its operators license from the FAA on Monday, one of the final milestones before construction of the facility will begin. The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation issued the launch site operator license to the New Mexico Spaceport Authority at the same time it released the record of decision on the environmental impact study for the spaceport on Monday, the last item needed before the license could be issued. Receiving the license was one of the last items needed to be completed before construction of the spaceport, in southern New Mexico north of Las Cruces, could begin. Groundbreaking of the $200-million facility is planned for the first quarter of 2009, with the terminal and hangar facilities to be completed by late 2010. The spaceport's anchor tenant will be Virgin Galactic, who will fly its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle from the spaceport once commercial operations begin.