Anyone following the billionaire space pissing contest?

Cirrus

Comparing Space X to either of the other two is quite a thing.

Stratavarious

RaymondLin

The cynic in me thinks most of them either passed out from the G force at best, or threw up inside the helmet and that doesn't make good PR…that's why there's no photos/video of the inside.

not_the_dj

https://mobile.twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1417522168078893056?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Not sure if the Twitter video link works, but they do seem to be messing around with sweets and zero G for a couple of minutes and not looking out of those massive windows at the “once in a lifetime” view. 

Simonh

$550m a minute….

ICBM

fob said:

Fair play to him - he was in it. Most definitely not a kid's ride (would you have wanted your kids in there?) and Musk hasn't dared be a passenger.

Wernher von Braun didn’t go up in a spacecraft either.

Cirrus said:

Comparing Space X to either of the other two is quite a thing.

Exactly. SpaceX has been to orbit with properly trained astronauts. It’s an order of magnitude different difficulty and risk.

Calling the passengers on Branson and Bezos’ trips ‘astronauts’ is like calling anyone who has ever been on an airliner a pilot.

Kilgore

The 24 people who have gone beyond low earth orbit are the proper astronauts. The ISS is about 220 miles up, that's not much further than London to Manchester. You can even see it from the ground. 

The Moon is 240,000 miles away. That's a long haul flight. 

Cirrus

Kilgore said:

The 24 people who have gone beyond low earth orbit are the proper astronauts. The ISS is about 220 miles up, that's not much further than London to Manchester. You can even see it from the ground. 

The Moon is 240,000 miles away. That's a long haul flight. 

Do you want to guess how much more energy it takes to get to the moon vs low earth orbit vs a ballistic arc that tops out at 300,000 feet?

Kilgore

Cirrus said:

Kilgore said:

The 24 people who have gone beyond low earth orbit are the proper astronauts. The ISS is about 220 miles up, that's not much further than London to Manchester. You can even see it from the ground. 

The Moon is 240,000 miles away. That's a long haul flight. 

Do you want to guess how much more energy it takes to get to the moon vs low earth orbit vs a ballistic arc that tops out at 300,000 feet?

Ballistic to orbit = loads. Orbit to Moon = not a lot. I'm familiar with the basic physics. 

Cirrus

Correct! Claim your prize: A pedalboard patch box with built in Cornish-style buffer, built in a really annoying format so that you'll constantly be wondering what connects where and what the switching logic is!

Kilgore

Cirrus said:

Correct! Claim your prize: A pedalboard patch box with built in Cornish-style buffer, built in a really annoying format so that you'll constantly be wondering what connects where and what the switching logic is!

Is it coming from Amazon? 

ICBM

Kilgore said:

The 24 people who have gone beyond low earth orbit are the proper astronauts.

I don't disagree that the ones who have only gone to low Earth orbit are astronauts either. But there's an enormous difference between going to orbit or beyond, and just popping up to an arbitrary height for a few minutes in freefall... especially when you're simply a passenger and have no role in operating the craft.

Cirrus

It was found in THE Amazon by a Dutch explorer.

Kilgore

I'm just messing guys. I'm a supporter of manned space flight and a permanent presence in orbit. Exploring is what humans do and should continue to do. I agree that the hype over Bezos/Branson is a bit ridiculous.

However it is the various unmanned missions that have expanded our knowledge of the solar system at a relatively low cost that I find most impressive(Voyager still blows my mind) 

The space launch I am most looking forward to this year is the Ariane 5 that will put the James Webb telescope into space. 

Reverend

Hurling_Fruitmig said:

skullfunkerry said:

Cols said:

This is the fella who was looking for a big government bailout for his airline, yeah?

Yep, and sued the NHS for millions when he wasn't awarded a contract. And owns his own island...

My other half was responsible for punting them off another NHS contract. They didn’t (couldn’t) sue because it was a sound decision when they tried some contactual jiggery pokery that didn't go their way.

It was my understanding that his parents bought him the island long before he became a self made billionaire face of shoddy knitwear.

Pretty sure he bought it with his own money. $120,000 in the late 70s and then spent more on the house.

fob

ICBM said:

fob said:

Fair play to him - he was in it. Most definitely not a kid's ride (would you have wanted your kids in there?) and Musk hasn't dared be a passenger.

Wernher von Braun didn’t go up in a spacecraft either.

 The vast majority of people involved in the space industry haven't gone up but they're not a part of the OP's pissing contest. I suppose if there was a 'how many lives are you responsible for taking' pissing contest then he'd be struggling to find a wall high enough.

Branson is a chancer who can't really compete with Musk and Bezos and took his ride just to spite Bezos (and it worked judging by Bezos's reaction). But, it's Musk and Bezos who have the genuine privately owned space companies. Space X got the jump on Blue Origin but I don't think I'd bet against Bezos - there's something to be said for being late to the party and BO could be the tortoise to SX's hare.

skullfunkerry

It's not exactly original of me, or particularly clever, but I'm just going to leave this here:

poopot

Kilgore

DefaultM

Lex Luthor lookalike floats about for a bit in a giant cock shaped rocket. Falls back to earth and says lol thanks for humouring me guys you all paid for this. What a day for humanity.