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Serious Debates & News Debate and discussion about political, moral, philosophical, celebrity and news topics. |
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#1 | ||
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Senior Moment
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"Space the final fronteir, these are the voyages of the VSS Enterpise its continuing mission; to make a helluva lot of cash for Richard Branson"
Virgin galactic has revealed its name for its spaceship; VSS Enterprise heres the story from Wikipedia The VSS Enterprise is the first commercial spaceship being constructed by Virgin Galactic. It will also be the first ship of the SpaceShipTwo class, based on upscaling the design of SpaceShipOne. It is due to have its first test flights in late 2007 or early 2008 with passenger service beginning in late 2008 or early 2009. These launches will occur at Virgin Galactic's launch pad located near Upham, New Mexico. The name is an acknowledgement to the USS Enterprise from the Star Trek television series. Entrepreneur Richard Branson, head of the space tourism company Virgin Galactic, offered William Shatner a free ride into space on the inaugural space launch of the VSS Enterprise, with a retail value of $200,000; however, Shatner turned it down, and said, "I don't mind going up but I need guarantees I'll definitely come back" |
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#2 | |||
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van der Woodsen
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Shatner turned it down? Omg, idiot.
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#3 | ||
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Senior Moment
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I know, I would have gone up, but hes always been a silly prat
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#4 | ||
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Senior Moment
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![]() VSS Enterprise in all its glory (its what it will look like) |
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#5 | ||
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Senior Moment
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Also Plans to put a hotel up there
BBC NEWS 'Space hotel' test craft launched Inflatable technology was first used by Nasa in the 1960s An experimental spacecraft designed to test the viability of a hotel in space has been successfully sent into orbit. Genesis II is an inflatable module designed and launched by Bigelow Aerospace, a private company founded by an American hotel tycoon. The inflatable and flexible core of the spacecraft expands to form a bigger structure after launch. Billionaire Robert Bigelow hopes to use inflatable technology to construct a manned space station by 2015. Inflatable spacecraft are attractive because they take up less space on their launch vehicle than solid components and therefore cost less to place into orbit. Genesis II was launched onboard a Russian rocket, and successfully separated from its launch vehicle 14 minutes after lift-off, engineers said. Communications were established with the craft after a short delay, before the module beamed back a series of images of its expanding solar panels. Officials said the craft was functioning well, with communications and air pressure as expected. Commercial pressure Bigelow Aerospace - slogan: Getting you excited again about space - hopes to build a full-scale space hotel, dubbed Nautilus, which will link a series of inflatable modules together like a string of sausages. Genesis II is a 15 ft (4.5m) module designed to expand to a diameter of 8ft (2.4m). Onboard the company has sent a collection of pictures and other memorabilia from fee-paying customers keen to see their personal possessions photographed in space. The company also hopes to activate a space-based bingo game to be played by people back on Earth. Later this year it plans to launch another module, Galaxy, described as a halfway house to a human-habitable space module. Founder Robert Bigelow has invested some $500m (£250m) in his project, which is vying with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic enterprise to take fee-paying customers into space. But experts say the costs of commercial space travel need to come down before it can be a success. As a result, Mr Bigelow is offering a $50m prize to anyone who can design a craft capable of carrying five people to a height of 400km (250 miles) before 2010. |
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