Cheaper Commerical Spaceflight one step closer: X-Prize awarded (+ Virgin Corp)

SpaceShipOne made its second flight, winning the Paul Allen's $10m X-Prize.

"Last week, Richard Branson, the British airline mogul and adventurer, announced that beginning in 2007, he will begin offering paying customers flights into space aboard. Branson said he had a deal, worth up to $25 million over 15 years, to license the technology that led to SpaceShipOne. Fares will start at more than $200,000."

Links:
Virgin Galactic (yes, Sir Richard Branson has decided to create the space-equivalent of Virgin Atlantic)
http://www.virgingalactic.com/
(interesting website)

X-Prize
http://www.xprize.org/

AP News Report
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/private_spaceship

Just wait until something goes wrong on one of these flights.

Also, I've heard that for the $200,000 price tag the time spent experiencing weightlessness will have to be counted in seconds, not even minutes.

But I guess if you're someone who makes millions upon millions a year, $200,000 is just a drop in the bucket. Especially if it gets you (almost) free publicity.

I'm a bit skeptical, seeing as Branson has been known to pull stunts like this (sorta) before, but whatever.

You'll never see me in space.

This is very good news. I just can't imagine how awesome it would be to actually have a chance to go into outer space (now if only I had enough money). Thanks for the news Bobak!

I only hope that I'll live long enough to see a price drop in fares...

Crovax said:

I only hope that I'll live long enough to see a price drop in fares...

Click to expand...

That'll be
Southwest Galactic

Maybe you can get it cheaper one-way.

Bobak said:

That'll be
Southwest Galactic

Click to expand...

If there is a Quanza Galactic should we expect to hear about it in Rainman 2?

Bransons a bit of a cock-jockey, and all the 'new technology' that he buys and sticks the Virgin logo on, has a tendency to break down (6 of the new tilting trains on the first day in service last week!) But I do think that these planes are uber-cool.
Although its a lorra, lorra cash for 6 minutes of weightlessness!
Still, he's calling the first one S.S Enterprise, so his stock just leapt up in my estimation!!!
Its now at one
So saying, you'd get a cheaper ride on the 'vomit-comet' if you just wanted real weightlessness, and more space to float about in!
Or you could probobly just buy some old alpha jet or converted Star-fighter (remember the NASA rocket ones?) for a super high 'almost orbital' flight whenever you wanted (if you're some loaded space-flight fan, or scientologist actor!).
I don't think people will want to throw £150k at being a passenger.