A new kind of space race is set to begin this weekend.
British entrepreneur and Virgin group founder Richard Branson will attempt to fly to space Sunday aboard his company’s rocket-powered vehicle. It would mark the culmination of 17 years of work by his space tourism firm, Virgin Galactic.
And, if successful, he would beat fellow billionaire, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to the milestone by a cool nine days.
The launches so close to each other add drama to what some see as a race to space between the two billionaires, even as Branson, 70, has downplayed any rivalry.
[…]
The launch Sunday will be Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed flight of its SpaceShipTwo Unity craft, with Branson, two pilots and three mission specialists, all employees of Virgin Galactic. Weather permitting, the test flight will happen before Bezos is scheduled to launch on the first operational flight of a rocket and capsule developed by his private space company, Blue Origin.
Rivalry or not, the upcoming flights represent milestones for both private space companies and the burgeoning commercial spaceflight industry, which until now has been dominated by fellow entrepreneur Elon Musk and his company, SpaceX. By putting their own lives on the line, Branson and Bezos are providing the ultimate proving ground to demonstrate the safety of their vehicles and the readiness of the nascent space tourism industry.
[continues]
[more continued from above — as if anyone cares and has nothing better to do]
Branson’s flight, from Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert, is scheduled to take place early Sunday but is contingent on clear weather. A livestream of the event, hosted by the comedian Stephen Colbert, will begin at 9 a.m. ET and can be viewed on Virgin Galactic’s Twitter, YouTube and Facebook channels.
Virgin Galactic’s Unity space plane takes off on a conventional runway while attached to a carrier ship known as WhiteKnightTwo. At an altitude of 50,000 feet, the Unity craft will be released and its rocket-powered engine will ignite, taking it to the edge of space.
This flight profile differs from Bezos’ planned expedition aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, which launches vertically from a secluded site in the Texas desert, southeast of El Paso. The experiences, however, are expected to be very similar.
As much as it interests me, and as much as Branson seems like the most affable of the three amigos/billionaire-egos (the people’s billionaire), a lot of good could be done on Earth with the money they are spending. In some cases, they aren’t even paying tax dollars to help fund the infrastructure from which they benefit.
How much humanitarian aid could go to impoverished regions of our planet?
How much is their space hobby contributing to climate change?
Still, space travel and the different crafts to get there are interesting to me and, perhaps, someday what seems like an out-of-control, pissing contest will lead to something that will benefit humanity.
Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are flying to space this month without purchasing any liability insurance, brokers told The New York Times’ DealBook newsletter on Friday.
Documentary coming soon to a TV near you:
“Assholes in Space”
patd – I wonder how many of the brokers looked at the risk of getting the billionaire/trillionaire into space and returned alive against what the payout would have to be if they did the flight to the Moon or the thud of finding Earth? Even with good odds of them returning alive what good is gambling on it? I can’t see any upside to it. Space is a harsh place to be and it is very risky to get there and return.
BB, given branson’s past exploits record – see below – not sure anyone would want to insure even a more riskier one.
The Virgin brand, including Branson’s airline and former record label, has long been associated with exploits of derring-do by its flamboyant founder. Branson set a new record for the fastest boat crossing of the Atlantic in 1986, a year after his initial attempt ended with a Royal Air Force helicopter rescue when his vessel capsized.
In 1987 he made a record-breaking Atlantic crossing by hot-air balloon, though again he had to be rescued from the sea.
He went on to break at least two other air-balloon speed records but failed to complete any of three bids to circumnavigate the globe by balloon.
sturge, more to the point
Yeah, for some reason the title somehow brought muppets to my mind also……
nothing like indulging in cartoons on a saturday morning 🙂
speaking of ‘toons, dana milbank’s op ed picturing mitch and joe on a desert island is quite a cartoon image – and a bit much even for saturday.
At some point whoever replaces him, should take the time to review the “basket” used to determine SS and SSI payments so that they reflect the actual costs of people receiving payments.
Jamie – one of my big “pet peeves” about Social Security is the payments are taxable. That is the action of that actor pretending to be president. The new head of SSA needs to press the Congress to end taxing SS payments.
I no thoughts on the billionaire space race other than hoping I might someday win the lottery and be able to book a week at Branson’s Necker Island
Branson’s story of the beginnings and uses for Necker
Yeah… when we were watching the news last night… Rick quipped… “Dicks in Space”.
And after seeing said news… I realized that I would gladly take a rotted out garden from too much rain than those fires and drought out west.
“Climate change has loaded the weather dice against us,” said Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy.
“These extremes are something we knew were coming,” she added. “The suffering that is here and now is because we have not heeded the warnings sufficiently.”
Katharine Hayhoe is my favorite “Conservative” climatologist. You can see her regular videos on both Facebook and You Tube.
oooh, just think of sitting out there on that porch with a planters’ punch in one hand and a good book in the other!
jamie, let us know when you win and we’ll go as your loyal entourage.
…just harvested my onion, fennel, and dill seeds, corn should be ready soon
i definitely never want to hear any warnings about climate change from Bezos, Branson, and anybody else who took a private jumbo jet to Sun Valley, those fucking hypocrites
PatD
It’s always more fun to travel with a congenial group.
Bink
That would apply to all aircraft flying. One of the major noticeable effect during early days of Covid was the clearing of the skies. It’s one of the reasons I support high speed rail service.
While Branson as an individual may have a carbon footprint of a small nation, at least he is trying to make changes which is more than you can say for most politicians.
“GRAPEVINE, Texas — Eighty-two-year-old Wally Funk will be joining Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, and one other person aboard the New Shepard’s first human flight on July 20. She will be the oldest person to ever go to space.”
Found another nugget from 73′
The Whole Earth Access C0mpany Boulder –
Speakin’ of ‘73……this was that famous time, as Bucky was so fond of telling, when I quit a good band to join a bad band, for less money. This was the bad band in Myrtle Beach. Before leaving the good band we were playing down the street from the band which became “Alabama”. We did midnight to 5am for Sock-Eye the gambler; “Wild Country”, (who became Alabama) did noon to 6pm, hour off, then 7 to midnight, so we were always in and out of all the joints, sittin in with the bands at the other clubs. They had the rough hours, but midnight to 5 ain’t no picnic.
A word about that rocket flight tomorrow morning .
The design of the entire system was sparked by a really smart aircraft designer.
Burt Rutan
He’s the reason you see those little “winglets” at the tips of your Boeing jet today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutan_Long-EZ
John Denver died in one of these planes.
Now Branson’s big problem .
They ain’t burning hydrogen and oxygen to get to space ,
They are burning Jet-A to 50,000 feet, and then burning ground-up tires to get the last leg of the trip .
The passenger ship is powered by a small solid rocket , like the boosters on the Shuttle.
Ground tires are mixed with an oxidizer . Think cookie dough.
Pump it into a tube with a igniter and a rocket nozzle at the bottom.
This system is almost foolproof , because it’s so simple.
It does have two drawbacks.
A. When you light it , you can’t turn it off.
B. It has no throttle because of A.
Watch the crew ship rocket nozzle tomorrow/
A very orange flame making black smoke. This is not a very “clean” sign.
His carbon foot print just for a “thrill” is going to be a whopper.
If there was ever as reason for a carbon tax it’s flying rich people to space.
I heard on the tube that 700 rich folk have purchased tickets to ride the rockets to the edge of space. I checked Travelocity and couldn’t find a seat.
Other than that tire fire problem.
That little ship is stroke of genius , it works like a shuttlecock.
And the flight plan is just like the Bell-X1 , the X-15, etc.
The “mothership” takes the daughter to about what we’ll see tomorrow morning. Making a corkscrew above the base.
Then they drop her. She lights the candle. And goes straight up , until they burn all those tires.
Then the crew ship becomes weightless , but gravity get’s after 3 mins.
And it turns into shuttlecock, see that crazy looking tail.
That is the reason Branson’s ship is so different.
First they are floating above New Mexico , they ain’t going 17,000 mph.
So they aren’t going very fast when they start, and the tail bleeds off speed as they get into the thicker layers of the atmosphere.
It “pumps the breaks” as they fly down . No heat shield.
This, like those Boeing “winglets” came from Burt Rutan.
His finger prints are all over this effort tomorrow morning.
Those “winglets” were known to reduce drag .
Burt had the tech to put them on his kit planes.
His image page , his designs were amazing .
sturgeone – roughly 1972-4. Better to be in a one man band on the Board Walk in December than this.
He’s the “Flying Tesla” of the 20th century
America has no clue about him.
He set the marker about how we design planes now.
I’m glad his ideas will be on center stage tomorrow.
So they shut down the old Miami / Dade county courthouse.
This will be very telling .
Someone got their cat back from the collapse. He was wandering around the neighborhood.
Cats
So I turned this box on the see what Death Valley did today.
A “balmy” 123F degrees.
Like millions I went west to “See the Elephant”.
That was magic a new start, a new chance, a new hope.
I played this over , and over……………..
God Bless California.
Remember, California sets the trend for the country .
That hasn’t changed , California has changed a lot.
This is the funniest bit in this century
So Mar -A- Lago was built between 23′ and 27′ out of very thick concrete.
It will be interesting to see the testing of that pour.
California wildfire generates its own lightning as it more than doubles in size
JULY 10, 2021 UPDATED 4:27 PM PT
A wildfire in Northern California more than doubled in size from Friday to Saturday, sending up a massive cloud of smoke and ash that combined with the dry heat generated its own lightning and created dangerous weather conditions for firefighters, authorities said.
I’ve read a lot of these reports. This is the first time I’ve seen a report like this.
The fire is making it’s own source of ignition without water playing a part. .
This is not in the models.
Our food supply ….
Think about it, all those California farmers , and all that goes with them are SOL .
Yuma grows our winter salads. but they do it with Colorado River water.
Now is a very good time to join a CSA . If you can find one that will take you in.
My idea of taking old K-Marts and growing food in them just became a safe bet.
That’s what I want to see , a huge old building in Detroit growing food under LED’s. 24/7 .
Trust me , this is the way of the future. Taking old large buildings, and converting them into farms.
It is already underway.
We don’t have to invent anything , it’s all at our fingertips.
Our big K-Mart became the YWCA ,
They have one of the last wild places in town behind their stall .
It is part of our flood plan . A piece of plumbing . But it is wild as Lubbock gets.
I want to see them , contact Texas Tech to advise them about it ,
As a place to teach kids about nature.
It is a jewel for learning.
I throw this against the wall , some of it sticks.
It’s too bad the 1% don’t get a thrill from solving problems on Earth.
“Billionaire airline mogul Richard Branson has called for Australia to adopt a net-zero emissions target by 2050, joining tech companies Tesla and Atlassian, energy company Origin, the Business Council and climate change groups.”
An interesting position given the pollution they are creating with their hobby.
Meanwhile, Orange Adolf will be invading Big D to spew nonsense at CPAC tomorrow.
I once slept in a corn crib south of Leadville.
It’s over 10,000 feet , we buried ourselves in the corn. Only our heads poked above it.
When me and Jose’ woke up , there were thousands of sheep all narching from every point on the compass , at us.
We baled as has soon as we could. The sheepman came along shortly after we made the road.
He boarded – up that schoolhouse.
Billionaires, livestreams and Stephen Colbert: Welcome to a new era of space flight (nbcnews.com)
[more continued from above — as if anyone cares and has nothing better to do]
best headline so far
Richard Branson’s Big Space D*ck Contest with Jeff Bezos is Reckless—and Potentially Deadly (thedailybeast.com)
As much as it interests me, and as much as Branson seems like the most affable of the three amigos/billionaire-egos (the people’s billionaire), a lot of good could be done on Earth with the money they are spending. In some cases, they aren’t even paying tax dollars to help fund the infrastructure from which they benefit.
How much humanitarian aid could go to impoverished regions of our planet?
How much is their space hobby contributing to climate change?
Still, space travel and the different crafts to get there are interesting to me and, perhaps, someday what seems like an out-of-control, pissing contest will lead to something that will benefit humanity.
business insider:
Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are flying to space this month without purchasing any liability insurance, brokers told The New York Times’ DealBook newsletter on Friday.
Documentary coming soon to a TV near you:
“Assholes in Space”
patd – I wonder how many of the brokers looked at the risk of getting the billionaire/trillionaire into space and returned alive against what the payout would have to be if they did the flight to the Moon or the thud of finding Earth? Even with good odds of them returning alive what good is gambling on it? I can’t see any upside to it. Space is a harsh place to be and it is very risky to get there and return.
BB, given branson’s past exploits record – see below – not sure anyone would want to insure even a more riskier one.
from gulf news business:
sturge, more to the point
Yeah, for some reason the title somehow brought muppets to my mind also……
nothing like indulging in cartoons on a saturday morning 🙂
speaking of ‘toons, dana milbank’s op ed picturing mitch and joe on a desert island is quite a cartoon image – and a bit much even for saturday.
Opinion | Mitch McConnell, naked and afraid – The Washington Post
Back here on Earth, Biden has fired the Trump appointed head of the Social Security Administration.
Andrew Saul
At some point whoever replaces him, should take the time to review the “basket” used to determine SS and SSI payments so that they reflect the actual costs of people receiving payments.
Long detailed article on the differences between actual payments and COLA based on costs of the elderly
Jamie – one of my big “pet peeves” about Social Security is the payments are taxable. That is the action of that actor pretending to be president. The new head of SSA needs to press the Congress to end taxing SS payments.
I no thoughts on the billionaire space race other than hoping I might someday win the lottery and be able to book a week at Branson’s Necker Island
Branson’s story of the beginnings and uses for Necker
Yeah… when we were watching the news last night… Rick quipped… “Dicks in Space”.
And after seeing said news… I realized that I would gladly take a rotted out garden from too much rain than those fires and drought out west.
Climate change has gotten deadly. It will get worse
Katharine Hayhoe is my favorite “Conservative” climatologist. You can see her regular videos on both Facebook and You Tube.
oooh, just think of sitting out there on that porch with a planters’ punch in one hand and a good book in the other!
jamie, let us know when you win and we’ll go as your loyal entourage.
…just harvested my onion, fennel, and dill seeds, corn should be ready soon
i definitely never want to hear any warnings about climate change from Bezos, Branson, and anybody else who took a private jumbo jet to Sun Valley, those fucking hypocrites
PatD
It’s always more fun to travel with a congenial group.
Bink
That would apply to all aircraft flying. One of the major noticeable effect during early days of Covid was the clearing of the skies. It’s one of the reasons I support high speed rail service.
While Branson as an individual may have a carbon footprint of a small nation, at least he is trying to make changes which is more than you can say for most politicians.
Richard Branson calls for Australia to back carbon neutral target by 2050 (smh.com.au)
Pish posh- Thunberg took a sailboat across the Atlantic the hard way to reduce her “footprint”💪
bink, hard to get enough lift in one of those things to reach weightlessness
…can achieve that in a swimming pool, no boat required
… but water is
and he’s been there and done that (badly) already
sir richard’s balloon crash in 1987
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/billionaire-space-race-as-richard-branson-and-jeff-bezos-blast-off-heres-how-their-suborbital-trips-match-up-11625840430
Higher or longer; the pissing contest breakdown.
This is the coolest part of Bezos’ flight.
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/san-antonio/news/2021/07/01/grapevine–texas–woman-going-to-space-with-jeff-bezos
“GRAPEVINE, Texas — Eighty-two-year-old Wally Funk will be joining Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, and one other person aboard the New Shepard’s first human flight on July 20. She will be the oldest person to ever go to space.”
Found another nugget from 73′
The Whole Earth Access C0mpany Boulder –
Speakin’ of ‘73……this was that famous time, as Bucky was so fond of telling, when I quit a good band to join a bad band, for less money. This was the bad band in Myrtle Beach. Before leaving the good band we were playing down the street from the band which became “Alabama”. We did midnight to 5am for Sock-Eye the gambler; “Wild Country”, (who became Alabama) did noon to 6pm, hour off, then 7 to midnight, so we were always in and out of all the joints, sittin in with the bands at the other clubs. They had the rough hours, but midnight to 5 ain’t no picnic.
A word about that rocket flight tomorrow morning .
The design of the entire system was sparked by a really smart aircraft designer.
Burt Rutan
He’s the reason you see those little “winglets” at the tips of your Boeing jet today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutan_Long-EZ
John Denver died in one of these planes.
Now Branson’s big problem .
They ain’t burning hydrogen and oxygen to get to space ,
They are burning Jet-A to 50,000 feet, and then burning ground-up tires to get the last leg of the trip .
The passenger ship is powered by a small solid rocket , like the boosters on the Shuttle.
Ground tires are mixed with an oxidizer . Think cookie dough.
Pump it into a tube with a igniter and a rocket nozzle at the bottom.
This system is almost foolproof , because it’s so simple.
It does have two drawbacks.
A. When you light it , you can’t turn it off.
B. It has no throttle because of A.
Watch the crew ship rocket nozzle tomorrow/
A very orange flame making black smoke. This is not a very “clean” sign.
His carbon foot print just for a “thrill” is going to be a whopper.
If there was ever as reason for a carbon tax it’s flying rich people to space.
I heard on the tube that 700 rich folk have purchased tickets to ride the rockets to the edge of space. I checked Travelocity and couldn’t find a seat.
Other than that tire fire problem.
That little ship is stroke of genius , it works like a shuttlecock.
And the flight plan is just like the Bell-X1 , the X-15, etc.
The “mothership” takes the daughter to about what we’ll see tomorrow morning. Making a corkscrew above the base.
Then they drop her. She lights the candle. And goes straight up , until they burn all those tires.
Then the crew ship becomes weightless , but gravity get’s after 3 mins.
And it turns into shuttlecock, see that crazy looking tail.
That is the reason Branson’s ship is so different.
First they are floating above New Mexico , they ain’t going 17,000 mph.
So they aren’t going very fast when they start, and the tail bleeds off speed as they get into the thicker layers of the atmosphere.
It “pumps the breaks” as they fly down . No heat shield.
This, like those Boeing “winglets” came from Burt Rutan.
His finger prints are all over this effort tomorrow morning.
Those “winglets” were known to reduce drag .
Burt had the tech to put them on his kit planes.
His image page , his designs were amazing .
https://www.google.com/search?q=burt+rutan&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiikfa17tnxAhUCG6wKHe5FA4wQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=burt+rutan&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgAMggIABCxAxCDATICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADoHCCMQ6gIQJzoECCMQJzoFCAAQsQM6BAgAEENQ7C1Ys2Zg8aUBaAFwAHgAgAFUiAHHBZIBAjEwmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWewAQrAAQE&sclient=img&ei=5EjqYKKPEoK2sAXui43gCA&bih=412&biw=827&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS789US953
sturgeone – roughly 1972-4. Better to be in a one man band on the Board Walk in December than this.
He’s the “Flying Tesla” of the 20th century
America has no clue about him.
He set the marker about how we design planes now.
I’m glad his ideas will be on center stage tomorrow.
So they shut down the old Miami / Dade county courthouse.
This will be very telling .
Someone got their cat back from the collapse. He was wandering around the neighborhood.
Cats
So I turned this box on the see what Death Valley did today.
A “balmy” 123F degrees.
Like millions I went west to “See the Elephant”.
That was magic a new start, a new chance, a new hope.
I played this over , and over……………..
God Bless California.
Remember, California sets the trend for the country .
That hasn’t changed , California has changed a lot.
This is the funniest bit in this century
So Mar -A- Lago was built between 23′ and 27′ out of very thick concrete.
It will be interesting to see the testing of that pour.
California wildfire generates its own lightning as it more than doubles in size
JULY 10, 2021 UPDATED 4:27 PM PT
A wildfire in Northern California more than doubled in size from Friday to Saturday, sending up a massive cloud of smoke and ash that combined with the dry heat generated its own lightning and created dangerous weather conditions for firefighters, authorities said.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-10/wildfire-generates-its-own-lightning-as-it-more-than-doubles-in-size
I’ve read a lot of these reports. This is the first time I’ve seen a report like this.
The fire is making it’s own source of ignition without water playing a part. .
This is not in the models.
Our food supply ….
Think about it, all those California farmers , and all that goes with them are SOL .
Yuma grows our winter salads. but they do it with Colorado River water.
Now is a very good time to join a CSA . If you can find one that will take you in.
My idea of taking old K-Marts and growing food in them just became a safe bet.
That’s what I want to see , a huge old building in Detroit growing food under LED’s. 24/7 .
Trust me , this is the way of the future. Taking old large buildings, and converting them into farms.
It is already underway.
We don’t have to invent anything , it’s all at our fingertips.
Our big K-Mart became the YWCA ,
They have one of the last wild places in town behind their stall .
It is part of our flood plan . A piece of plumbing . But it is wild as Lubbock gets.
I want to see them , contact Texas Tech to advise them about it ,
As a place to teach kids about nature.
It is a jewel for learning.
I throw this against the wall , some of it sticks.
It’s too bad the 1% don’t get a thrill from solving problems on Earth.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/branson-backs-oz-carbon-neutral-target-by-2050-20210205-p56zv4.html
“Billionaire airline mogul Richard Branson has called for Australia to adopt a net-zero emissions target by 2050, joining tech companies Tesla and Atlassian, energy company Origin, the Business Council and climate change groups.”
An interesting position given the pollution they are creating with their hobby.
Meanwhile, Orange Adolf will be invading Big D to spew nonsense at CPAC tomorrow.
I once slept in a corn crib south of Leadville.
It’s over 10,000 feet , we buried ourselves in the corn. Only our heads poked above it.
When me and Jose’ woke up , there were thousands of sheep all narching from every point on the compass , at us.
We baled as has soon as we could. The sheepman came along shortly after we made the road.
He boarded – up that schoolhouse.
NEW THREAD