Thursday, September 16, 2010

Virgin vs Boeing and Armadillos News

Are you ready for launch?
(not lunch, launch)


Did you know you can book a space flight?

According to the Virgin Galactic web site for as little as $20,000 down you can book a future flight.

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.

Yesterday, Boeing, released the news that they will be offering the public seats on their future Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) spacecraft.
Many months ago, Virgin Galactic, announced their plans to offer public sub-orbital flights.  Note, there is a difference in these offerings.  The CST-100 can take you all the way to the space station which would include a few orbits.  Of course, sometimes you only have time for short trip and you just want to see the sights and come back.

My career has included many years of involvement with Boeing.  Some of the funnest business trips involved Boeing and their 777 development.  It's an amazing plane and seeing it being built was a wonder to behold.  Another Boeing project that I believe paid my salary for few years (I was employed by Verizon Airfone not Boeing) was their airline passenger communication project called Connexion.  Technically it worked but it didn’t have a sound business plan.  Probably a billion dollars (slightly wild guess) of Boeing's money they dropped it.  Hopefully this space trip business will work from them.

I definitely like the nose art on the Virgin aircraft and doubt Boeing will even have nose art.  Oh there's great promotional clip on the Virgin Galactic site to check out.  It's about 8 minutes
.

Taking a flight into space would be a dream trip to me.  I have an idea on how to do it.  I could start the Old Fart Fund (OFF) and if I could convince say 100,000 people to send me for just $5 a piece, I could afford to launch.  I would promise to email and blog about it.

I did start a Facebook page for my Stop Music On-hold idea and got 20 people so far.





Oh, remember the post title?  Why armadillos?
The company that Boeing teamed up with Space Adventures also has teamed up with Armadillo Aerospace.

My background is not marketing, but armadillos like to burrow into the ground and why would anyone pick that name for an aerospace company?

(all this sparked an idea in my head which has been burning to get out - Create a company to take teenagers for a number of months.  Summer camp is just too short sometimes.  This company would run the teenager through weeks of training and then shoot them into space where they could spin around for a few weeks.  I know there are parents of teenagers that would jump at an opportunity like this.  Hell maybe they would actually learn something.)
 

8 comments:

Dwmatty said...

If I had the money, I would go in a heartbeat. But that won't be anytime soon. But on the idea of sending kids up, you are right. Parents would be in line for that opportunity.

W.C. Camp said...

Yeah I was surprised that Boeing announced this venture. It is not within their normal scope of business and it is a risky enterprise even when times are fat with cash. The fact is that as glorious as the 777 is ( and it is a revolutionary aircraft), the production delays are becoming very costly and will likely affect Boeing's short term 'fun money' for normal operations, much less a future space 'toy' for millionaires.

BLOGitse said...

I like it here on earth, thank you! :) I can't scuba dive neither. My imagination is too wild...

TechnoBabe said...

It is wonderful that it is even possible for people to travel in outer space. Some day that might be where the survivors on earth have to live. Ya never know.

lisleman said...

My guess is they decided to add this extra service on to their business with NASA. The international space station is going to flying for years and after the shuttle stops we only have the Russians.
You are confusing the 787 with the 777. I first flew on a 777 back in the mid 90's. I think the 787 is about 2 years late.

lisleman said...

A sad prediction to say that we would need to abandon this planet. Want to buy some property on Mars?

Bearmancartoons said...

Why doesn't NASA do this so they can make some money. I wouldn't go...I got claustrophobic doing the mission to mars ride at Disney.

lisleman said...

Maybe because of US lawyers? You have a very good question. I think you should email them and ask. Oh I did just think of another reason, maybe those companies have lobbyists.

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