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That whole flight was anti-climatic. $250k for a 45 second ride? Is their any point to point travel potential for this thing? Go from London to Australia in like 3 hours? Or is it just a very expensive, fancy and dangerous roller coaster ride? davecrazy fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Jul 11, 2021 |
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Jul 11, 2021 17:51
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davecrazy posted:That whole flight was anti-climatic. Hadfield said *20* seconds.
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Jul 11, 2021 17:58
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I think there's prob a huge market for this. There's a fuckton of rich middle aged guys whose dopamine receptors are fried out and who love ~space~. It's a very exclusive theme park ride targeted at everyone who's ever participated in a Series A
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Jul 11, 2021 18:07
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Best Friends posted:I think there's prob a huge market for this. There's a fuckton of rich middle aged guys whose dopamine receptors are fried out and who love ~space~ It won’t be long after that before they start carving up orphans and playing with strange cubes
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Jul 11, 2021 18:09
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It'll be fun when space kills its first millionaire because they think it's Wars/Trek instead of The Expanse. Space wants/tries to kill everyone in it. I'm cool with feeding it billionaires.
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Jul 11, 2021 18:19
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There's nothing rich people lust after more than the idea that something more than money is what separates them from everybody else.
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Jul 11, 2021 18:36
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boop the snoot posted:I don’t think it’s a healthy thing Ftfy
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Jul 11, 2021 18:52
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Honestly I'm still chuckling at calling it Virgin Anticlimactic from now on. And the hubris of calling himself "Astronaut 001" while in the company of not only Chris Hadfield (good god I hope he got at least mid/high six figures for the poo poo they made him eat/say) but the Shuttle pilot that was flying his glorified cannon ball. As much as I don't want to praise Elon Musk, SpaceX didn't sit on their loving thumbs and spin for over a decade before claiming a hollow achievement like this. If Branson had taken this flight six months after the first suborbital test it would've been praiseworthy. But today was just oversauced Spruce Goosing. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Jul 11, 2021 |
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Jul 11, 2021 19:15
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It's so loving stupid. Sub-orbital for maybe 20 seconds, SpaceX it's years ahead of this. Maybe instead of this wasteful poo poo they could pay their taxes
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Jul 11, 2021 19:18
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And after today's ALL SHALL LOVE ME fest, you just know Bezos is going to ham it up even more. I'm honestly wondering if the bandwidth issues they had were AWS-related.
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Jul 11, 2021 19:20
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What is supposed be impressive about this? Isn't ramjet tech a 60's/70's thing. It's not like they made it commercially available either with a 400k price tag.
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Jul 11, 2021 19:27
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Defenestrategy posted:What is supposed be impressive about this? Isn't ramjet tech a 60's/70's thing. It's rich people bullshit, nothing more. Whether or not it turns into rich people ultra concorde commercial flights (from loving New Mexico, no less) doesn't matter to us little people.
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Jul 11, 2021 19:30
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Defenestrategy posted:What is supposed be impressive about this? Isn't ramjet tech a 60's/70's thing. It's not even a ramjet. The engines look like CO2 cartridges. I don't even think they're reusable. And they use nitrous oxide as an oxidizer so each flight is just putting more greenhouse gas into the upper atmosphere, exactly where it *shouldn't* be.
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Jul 11, 2021 19:42
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https://twitter.com/Marco_Langbroek/status/1414158401853136900?s=19 https://twitter.com/Marco_Langbroek/status/1414173653026148353?s=19
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Jul 11, 2021 19:55
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Dennis Tito has since become a just-barely-a-billionaire since his paid-for Soyuz flight, so Branson can't even claim *that* guillotine-worthy title.
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Jul 11, 2021 19:59
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The easy counter point is that ultra rich people setting private records with new aircraft in the 20s and 30s was critical to the early civilian aviation industry. Branson is the first in space on a 100% private spacecraft which is something I guess.
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Jul 11, 2021 20:01
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I'd contend that the ultra-rich loving around with aviation in the 20s and 30s didn't advance civilian aviation as much as WW1 and WW2 did by creating way more qualified pilots.
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Jul 11, 2021 20:03
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BIG HEADLINE posted:I'd contend that the ultra-rich loving around with aviation in the 20s and 30s didn't advance civilian aviation as much as WW1 and WW2 did by creating way more qualified pilots. And engineers and technicians.
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Jul 11, 2021 20:05
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BIG HEADLINE posted:I'd contend that the ultra-rich loving around with aviation in the 20s and 30s didn't advance civilian aviation as much as WW1 and WW2 did by creating way more qualified pilots. Branson is no Howard Hughes
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Jul 11, 2021 20:06
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hobbesmaster posted:
SpaceX Dragon capsule.
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Jul 11, 2021 20:08
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McCafee probably hoarded more piss than Branson.
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Jul 11, 2021 20:08
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CRUSTY MINGE posted:SpaceX Dragon capsule. That was paid for and flown by NASA.
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Jul 11, 2021 20:09
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hobbesmaster posted:That was paid for and flown by NASA. Ah. I figured at best it was a partnership thing. But yeah, of course nasa paid for it. I assumed it was more in-house.
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Jul 11, 2021 20:11
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CRUSTY MINGE posted:'Murica. In what manner?
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Jul 11, 2021 20:38
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I think one of my most favorite "Mad NdT" lectures was when he was in his office, grabbed a globe, and a small ruler and made the case that as a species, on a galactic scale, we hadn't even gotten close to leaving his office, and that going to the moon didn't even encompass leaving the surface of his desk. I feel the same thing whenever I go into the Air & Space Museum in DC. So very little has changed or been added since I went in there all  as a snot-nosed five year old in 1986 for the first time. It's gone from being a palace of wonders to a mausoleum of failed  .
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Jul 11, 2021 20:42
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BIG HEADLINE posted:I feel the same thing whenever I go into the Air & Space Museum in DC. So very little has changed or been added since I went in there all I mean part of that is because up until 2019, the museum hadn't actually undergone any renovations to its major galleries since it opened in 1976. That is changing though—they started undergoing a massive 7 year renovation project two years ago, with plans to update every major gallery in the museum and bring it up to modern standards.
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Jul 11, 2021 21:36
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While I'm fairly convinced that Branson's "achievements" here are hollow and meaningless, I think the idea of "we did that poo poo in the 60s, who cares" from some of the tweets responding to that article isn't a great attitude. We lost ground and we will need to retread it before advancing.
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Jul 11, 2021 22:02
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piL posted:While I'm fairly convinced that Branson's "achievements" here are hollow and meaningless, I think the idea of "we did that poo poo in the 60s, who cares" from some of the tweets responding to that article isn't a great attitude. We lost ground and we will need to retread it before advancing. None of these flights do that though? Nothing that both craft did is new or novel, they are largely rehashes of the same tech we already have. SpaceX and even Electron are leaps and bounds ahead in doing actual groundbreaking work. Hell, even Sierra Nevada Corp's mini-shuttle Dream Chaser is doing more than Virgin Galactic is
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Jul 11, 2021 22:07
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CommieGIR posted:None of these flights do that though? Nothing that both craft did is new or novel, they are largely rehashes of the same tech we already have. SpaceX and even Electron are leaps and bounds ahead in doing actual groundbreaking work. I mean if you’re saying virgin galactic is just an X-15 carrying passengers dragon is just a larger Apollo command module. It’s all a bit dumb. Prior to today there was no air launched single stage to space passenger spacecraft, now there is. That’s something.
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Jul 11, 2021 22:11
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CommieGIR posted:None of these flights do that though? Nothing that both craft did is new or novel, they are largely rehashes of the same tech we already have. SpaceX and even Electron are leaps and bounds ahead in doing actual groundbreaking work. My point is that it doesn't have to be new tech to be of value. Old tech organized to a function or done cheaper could be a worthwhile. That does not conflict with this being without value, just that some of the arguments on why it its valueless aren't good arguments. I draw attention to it because I don't want novel to be the standard. Edit: I edited out my agreement, I'll let people who know more than me discuss the individual merits, I'm just being a pedant with a purpose.
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Jul 11, 2021 22:14
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hobbesmaster posted:I mean if you’re saying virgin galactic is just an X-15 carrying passengers dragon is just a larger Apollo command module. It’s all a bit dumb. Prior to today there was no air launched single stage to space passenger spacecraft, now there is. That’s something. Single stage to space is overselling a ballistic non-orbital flight. I get your point, but I don't think these really qualify.
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Jul 11, 2021 22:33
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We shouldn't be excited about a billionaire's pet novelty project. We should fund NASA better and get real exploring done
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Jul 11, 2021 22:34
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The universe doesn’t deserve the burden of humans. Let’s just stay on this rock and not export our lovely behavior elsewhere. It’s bad enough here. You think if we ever manage to find extra terrestrial life we wouldn’t just murder it all?
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Jul 11, 2021 22:40
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boop the snoot posted:The universe doesn’t deserve the burden of humans. Let’s just stay on this rock and not export our lovely behavior elsewhere. It’s bad enough here. That's assuming that alien life is peaceful rather than being basically us but with different physique. Flikken posted:We shouldn't be excited about a billionaire's pet novelty project. Yup. We should be giving NASA to stuff to do it, let them decide on how best handle space.
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Jul 11, 2021 22:47
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CommieGIR posted:That's assuming that alien life is peaceful rather than being basically us but with different physique. CommieGIR posted:That's assuming that alien life is peaceful rather than being basically us but with different physique. NASA has done amazing things, especially via Mars rovers and deep space probes, but Space X pioneered reusable rockets and Virgin Galactic might pioneer sub orbital passenger vehicles. NASA is a government entity, they don’t have the risk tolerance or incentive to quickly innovate.
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Jul 11, 2021 22:56
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Flikken posted:We shouldn't be excited about a billionaire's pet novelty project. Correct. This is nothing more than people with way too much money swinging their dicks at each other.
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Jul 11, 2021 22:58
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Italy just beat England at football Euro champioships.
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Jul 11, 2021 23:00
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it's (not) coming home
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Jul 11, 2021 23:04
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fknlo posted:Correct. This is nothing more than people with way too much money swinging their dicks at each other. Exactly we should be doing this on a national scale with NASA. Let's swing some aerospace dicks at Russia and China
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Jul 11, 2021 23:05
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Ataxerxes posted:Italy just beat England at football Euro champioships. https://twitter.com/GideonResnick/status/1414342627957252096
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Jul 11, 2021 23:05
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