Wouldn’t it be great to spend less time getting between continents?

Quote from Rice

Wouldn’t it be great to spen less time getting between continents?

A ony ticket to Scotland on a biplane would do me.

Quote from Rice

Wouldn’t it be great to spen less time getting between continents?

The time you would have to go through the rigmarole of loading people, strapping them in, not forgetting about the cargo, flights cancelled due to precipitation due to low clouds i.e. possible thunderstorms etc..., I think all that would probably negate any "faster" time to go to another continent, let alone going to the launch tower, what if something like the lifts fail? People in airports can simply walk in a different direction

I can understand that if someone in the UK wants to go to Australia, all that said might not be all that bad

This looks interesting

Bunk beds in economy class.......

https://simpleflying.com/economy-seating-bunk-beds/

From The Telegraph today:

“How many billioniares do you need to start a space race? Just two. Richard Branson has gazumped Jeff Bezos, and will be launched into space a week before the Amazon founder.“

How long will it be before a band of musicians names itself “Extragalactic Rhythm?”

Interesting comments by astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, on whether it is accurate to call Branson’s and Bezos’ adventures actual space travel -

https://www.google.com/amp/s/a…-branson-space-travel.cnn

I hope that the suborbital adventures of the gazillionaires who are now calling themselves “astronauts” will at some point reap benefits for the world, but I agree that right now, the trips seem only to satisfy the selfishness of wealthy individuals at the expense of more rocket fuel in the atmosphere.

Not incidentally, neither Amazon nor its founder Jeff Bezos paid a single dollar in taxes in 2017 or 2018, millions of dollars that went into their joyride instead of into paying their fair share of the tax burden. (This, of course, is not their fault, but that of the legislators who have continued to allow tax loopholes favoring the top 1%. But it is a factor not to be ignored.)

Quote from Rice

Interesting comments by astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, on whether it is accurate to call Branson’s and Bezos’ adventures actual space travel -

https://www.google.com/amp/s/a…-branson-space-travel.cnn

Bezos actually did pass the Karman line, so in effect he did do a bit of space travelling, albeit, not for very long. But he didn't pass the bit where things get toasty on re-entry

I’ll stick with the astrophysicist. But yes, they did reach zero gravity.

I feel very strongly that calling these day adventurers “astronauts” dilutes the meaning for the men and women who spent years training for actual space missions.

Rich boys with over inflated egos haven't impressed me one little bit. They're both tossers as far as I'm concerned.

Quote from UK Man

Rich boys with over inflated egos haven't impressed me one little bit. They're both tossers as far as I'm concerned.

The worst of them all is Musk. The press seem to love him, and I can't understand why

Quote from Splinter

You may not like him, but he's driven, has a vision and gets things done.

gets things done like hyperloop? Also the Las Vegas loop where he claims to have pods running at 155 mph and transporting 4400 per hour? That sort of things done?

Elon Musk is a bundle of contradictions. He made his reputation, and his billions, through his training and firm belief in science and scientific principles. Yet he has set back the world’s fight against a killing pandemic by spreading decidedly disproven misinformation about the novel coronavirus and the vaccines developed to combat it.

He has achieved much. And has caused incalculable damage.

The New York Times weighs in on the 2021 astronaut question today: