Scrutable

monkey wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:40 pm

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:21 pm

WFJ wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:51 pm

Beardy flew to 88 km which is not normally considered space, except by early US test pilots. Are his planes not able to reach 100 km, or did they just not bother for this test flight? If they are, it's a bit underwhelming for him to try to fly to space but miss.

The sky is black, he could see the curvature of the earth, and the people inside the vessel experienced weightlessness. That would count as space to most people.

I think most people are choosing whether this was space or not based on whether they dislike Branson or Bezos more.

monkey wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:40 pm

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:21 pm

WFJ wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:51 pm

Beardy flew to 88 km which is not normally considered space, except by early US test pilots. Are his planes not able to reach 100 km, or did they just not bother for this test flight? If they are, it's a bit underwhelming for him to try to fly to space but miss.

The sky is black, he could see the curvature of the earth, and the people inside the vessel experienced weightlessness. That would count as space to most people.

I think most people are choosing whether this was space or not based on whether they dislike Branson or Bezos more.

IvanV wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 12, 2021 12:10 pm

lpm wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 12, 2021 11:22 am

...
Virgin is intended to be a brand and that's what it is. Obviously it's not as successful as Apple or Dyson. But does well enough. Branson's stunts feed back into the brand, making it "cool", allowing him to license the brand name to companies like Virgin Media or Virgin Money for a couple of hundred million quid a year. The brand is worth a billion or two as a result, which is obviously rather nice to own even if it isn't worth a trillion like Apple.

...The whole point of Virgin is to then sell these ventures on to proper companies to do the actual hard work and rake in the brand fees. Branson & Co don't want the daily boredom of actually running an airline or train franchise or mobile operator or cruise ship....

You are right, it has mostly become that. And his sensible decision to get out of running stuff is why he is rich today. But it wasn't how he started. And Virgin Group still owned 51% of Virgin Atlantic when it went bankrupt last year.

He did eventually realise he should specialise in what he was good at: marketing, innovation, and screwing co-investors. And as far as possible stop running things. But it took a long time to come to that realisation, and for around 30 years he tried to run things. And thought that was how he would make money. He ran Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic for many years. It was only later he realised the potential of selling his companies on. Or in fact 49% the better to screw his partners. Virgin Records was plainly a distressed sale, and I doubt he would have done it at that time if he could have avoided it. I'm not convinced he initially set up his financial services companies with the intention of selling them on and getting out of it, though later it became that. I'm not convinced that he set up Virgin trains with the intention of bringing in a partner after he had the franchise. He competed against Stagecoach for the West Coast franchise, and it was only after Virgin had been running the trains for over a year that Stagecoach bought into it, because it was not going well. Was that the plan?

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 12, 2021 5:43 pm

How high did James May go? That looked high enough to please a space tourist, which is the point.

Tourist space could be like a tourist resort - a fudge between experiencing a different culture and convenience.

Eta Googled it - 21 km. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M ... e_of_Space Going to 88 would be dope.

To witness rich boys using space travel for touristic amusement shows how much the modernist project of limitless expansion has come to a clownish end. Time to land. Don’t repeat history by farce; dream again, but interesting dreams.

noggins wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 13, 2021 10:24 am

why explore space?

WFJ wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:51 pm

Beardy flew to 88 km which is not normally considered space, except by early US test pilots. Are his planes not able to reach 100 km, or did they just not bother for this test flight? If they are, it's a bit underwhelming for him to try to fly to space but miss.

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:21 pm

WFJ wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:51 pm

Beardy flew to 88 km which is not normally considered space, except by early US test pilots. Are his planes not able to reach 100 km, or did they just not bother for this test flight? If they are, it's a bit underwhelming for him to try to fly to space but miss.

The sky is black, he could see the curvature of the earth, and the people inside the vessel experienced weightlessness. That would count as space to most people.

lpm wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:38 pm

I like the way they play dress up. Astronaut costumes when they could just wear jeans and a t-shirt.

insignificant wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:59 pm

lpm wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:38 pm

I like the way they play dress up. Astronaut costumes when they could just wear jeans and a t-shirt.

There's still a fire risk from the capsule's escape booster, so wearing (nomex) flight suits is sensible

Still don't care though

bagpuss wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:46 am

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:21 pm

WFJ wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:51 pm

Beardy flew to 88 km which is not normally considered space, except by early US test pilots. Are his planes not able to reach 100 km, or did they just not bother for this test flight? If they are, it's a bit underwhelming for him to try to fly to space but miss.

The sky is black, he could see the curvature of the earth, and the people inside the vessel experienced weightlessness. That would count as space to most people.

Meh, I got 2 out of 3 of those on Concorde. And that definitely wasn't space.

Trinucleus wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 3:57 pm

How long will it take all the electric Amazon Vans to compensate for the CO2 released?

Gfamily wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:14 pm

I didn't really have a view on Richard Branson's recent flight*; but I am delighted that (all being well) Wally Funk will be finally travelling into space tomorrow. One of the so called 'Mercury 13' of women who were taken through the same astronaut testing as the male 'Mercury 7' test pilots; she passed, of course, but all the women were denied the opportunity to fly.
Finally, she's getting the chance to do what she was so obviously capable of doing 60 odd years ago.
The BBC journalist Sue Nelson wrote an amazing bio called 'Wally Funk's Race for Space', well worth a read.
Anyhow, she's lifting off at 2pm BST tomorrow. I'm assuming the Blue Origin lift off will be streamed.

lpm wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 3:49 pm

I particularly enjoy seeing they had a mission patch, like it was a proper mission. Got to have a patch if you're an astronaut, the costume looks weird without one.

dyqik wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:06 am