Again, I am left with a stunning ambivalence.
Virgin Galactic Starlines. (I am going to use the term Starlines here, even though it is misleading, but because I like the ring of it.)
Well, Virgin Galactic is getting Scaled to draw up and build their craft, the first of their fleet. They expect to take delivery of her sometime near two and a half years from now. That's thirty months for Scaled to build a commercially viable and safe spacecraft. Aside from the emmence task ahead of Rutan and his incredibly able elves out in the Mojave, I see another problem.
Richard Branson (head of Virgin Enterprises), is a freakin moron.
Not because he's laid down millions of dollars for this venture.
Not because he thinks it will return a profit within a few years of inception.
Not because he is under or overestimating the market for this craft...
but because he's naming it the VSS Enterprise. As in Enterprise. Virgin Starlines' website has a nice play on words because it's based on free enterprise, as opposed to governmentally sanctioned launches. Still! Damn it! It is bad enough that there's already a submarine, an Aircraft Carrier, a Space Shuttle Orbiter, and a few dozen fictional spacecraft in one particular peice of Sci-fi that has twice been able to come up with an original name for the protagonist's ride. Sweet Jeezus. We need a few thousand more Enterprises, just floating around the galaxy, so that when the alien invaders (ie: chinese) come to kill us all, they will see just how fuckin' retarded we as a species are.
Well, Virgin Galactic is getting Scaled to draw up and build their craft, the first of their fleet. They expect to take delivery of her sometime near two and a half years from now. That's thirty months for Scaled to build a commercially viable and safe spacecraft. Aside from the emmence task ahead of Rutan and his incredibly able elves out in the Mojave, I see another problem.
Richard Branson (head of Virgin Enterprises), is a freakin moron.
Not because he's laid down millions of dollars for this venture.
Not because he thinks it will return a profit within a few years of inception.
Not because he is under or overestimating the market for this craft...
but because he's naming it the VSS Enterprise. As in Enterprise. Virgin Starlines' website has a nice play on words because it's based on free enterprise, as opposed to governmentally sanctioned launches. Still! Damn it! It is bad enough that there's already a submarine, an Aircraft Carrier, a Space Shuttle Orbiter, and a few dozen fictional spacecraft in one particular peice of Sci-fi that has twice been able to come up with an original name for the protagonist's ride. Sweet Jeezus. We need a few thousand more Enterprises, just floating around the galaxy, so that when the alien invaders (ie: chinese) come to kill us all, they will see just how fuckin' retarded we as a species are.