Branson: We'll Blast Off In Fall, And Build Hotels In Space

[Crisp]

Branson: We'll Blast Off In Fall, And Build Hotels In Space

 

 

Brushing aside mounting criticism, Sir Richard insists his space program is going ahead, and even claims he will build hotels in space

 

Richard Branson is fighting a rearguard action to defend his troubled space program, Virgin Galactic, which has come in for much criticism in recent weeks, with increasing numbers of commentators questioning whether it will ever get off the ground.

He insisted that the first flight will be ready to go in August, and that he will be on it, with his children.

But he admitted there were risks involved.

In an interview with Guardian Weekend Magazine, Sir Richard said: "Everybody who signs up knows this is the birth of a new space programme and understands the risks that go with that. The biggest worry I had was re-entry. NASA has lost about three per cent of everyone who's gone into space, and re-entry has been their biggest problem. For a government-owned company, you can just about get away with losing three per cent of your clients. For a private company you can't really lose anybody."

And if shooting people into space seems like a rather sweetly naive and childlike idea, then perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to learn that Richard Branson has admitted he got the idea for his commercial space flight venture during a phone-in on a children?s TV show.

The Virgin boss told British TV host Jonathan Ross that he first thought about the idea in 1988 on the BBC Saturday morning show 'Going Live' when someone suggested it during a viewer phone-in.

He also brushed off criticism of his venture - and, in true Branson style, said that he hoped to build "Virgin hotels in space."

 

Source and more

[Beittil]

Yeah right, thats just 5 months away and the SS2 engine hasn't flown under power for more then roughly 22ish seconds yet!

[DocM]

But which engine? There are 3, two hybrids (one based on rubber, the other nylon) and one of the liquid fueled "Newton" engine family that they have said was a down the road replacement.

This is all being driven by,

an author who has made somewhat of a career of writing anti-Branson books,

a website that frequently references the author, and vice versa

those papers & sites who parrot & quote both

IMHO sometimes this tends to get a bit breathless.

Behind this noise is the real question of if the rubber based hybrid used in SpaceShipOne has the power to propel the much larger SpaceShipTwo past 100km (62 miles), the boundary of space known as the Karman Line.

This question was known years ago, which is why VG has had nylon based hybrid engine in parallel development since at least 2010. The rubber and nylon based hybrids have both had full duration burns on the test stand. The larger Newton is still in development. Odds are the nylon engine will power the initial high altitude flights.

Earlier during flight tests there was a delay when initial tests of SS2's "feather" re-entry wing position caused oscillations. They did the analysis, added strakes (small airfoils) to correct it then did a series of tests to confirm the strakes worked.

There has also been a delay after the initial powered tests because thermal sensors detected elevated temps in the tail booms from the rocket plume. The recent powered test gap was to do due diligence and then install a thermal reflective coating to fix the problem.

As XCOR's CEO Jeff Greason has said many times; flight tests take as long as they have to. Their entire purpose is to find real-world problems the simulators cannot.

[FloatingFatMan]

As XCOR's CEO Jeff Greason has said many times; flight tests take as long as they have to. Their entire purpose is to find real-world problems the simulators cannot.

 

Exactly. The last thing anyone wants, is for an accident to happen due to rushing things.

[Astra.Xtreme]

I think even a guy of his net-worth couldn't afford to put a hotel in space (orbit).  Even the space station would be a rather uncomfortable "hotel".

[DocM]

I think even a guy of his net-worth couldn't afford to put a hotel in space (orbit). Even the space station would be a rather uncomfortable "hotel".

A Bigelow Aerospace commercial space station is expected to be launched within the decade, possibly before 2018. All they've been waiting for is the Commercial Crew spacecraft to start flying, and that's expected to be 2016/2017. They're testing the life support system with humans this year, may have already started, and their 3rd testbed module goes to ISS in 2015.

The initial station will be 330 m^3 in volume, a BA-330 module of about 1/3 the size of ISS. Add more as required, and SpaceX has announced a cargo fairing for Falcon Heavy that's a fit (BA and SpaceX are teamed on this.)

Down the road a few years Bigelow has a BA-2100 Olympus module on the boards that's 2x the size of ISS, 2100 m^3, and a perfect fit for the coming SpaceX super-seavy launcher. It will mass ~75 tonnes.

660 m^3 Alpha Station

Bigelow tug; several types for capturing/maneuvering spacecraft (shown), linking modules with a hub, propulsion (reboost etc.), deep space propulsion, or moving modules to cislunar space.