Comments on: XCOR: Economy Class Space Tourism?

By: alphonso richardson

alphonso richardson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:13:56 +0000

Great. I could STILL be sitting next to drunken, beer-swilling slobs & screaming babies.
Maybe we should send them to futrure colonies. I wonder if they would survive the trip…………………………………….

By: dollhopf

dollhopf — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:17:15 +0000

hello Bernd Missal,

Stephen Hawking does not share your opinion at all. He is already preparing for a flight on Spaceship 2.

"Once we spread out into space and establish colonies, our future should be safe", he says.

By: Bernd Missal

Bernd Missal — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:11:43 +0000

Think twice, all you space-adepts: what is the the footprint on mother earth of commercial spaceflights like this? The average American already has an ecological footprint ten times that of an average human being. This doesn't solve any problem, on the contrary.
Kick ass the world for the ultimate rollercoaster, for fun and status. With a childish mentality like that, we are not "fit for survival".

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:20:41 +0000

While I'd love a chance to go into space, it seems to me there is some false advertising going here. (Then again, not revealing all the facts to consumers is a long-standing tradition, right?)

The highest XCOR will get is 61 km. Sure, that's high, but "space" officially begins at 100 km. That's why "100 km" was so critical in the Ansari X-Prize.

And when you reach 61 km, it's not like gravity turns off and you're left only with "microgravity" as the XCOR graphic suggests. It's the same "0 gravity" experienced during free fall on the Vomit Comet.

Of course, there is also plenty of gravity on the ISS but at least the constant free fall around the Earth means gravity doesn't "switch off" and "switch on" again.

Buyer beware, I guess.

By: dollhopf

dollhopf — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:50:14 +0000

Can't the reentry be used for a parabolic flight phase to increase the experienced time of zero gravitation?

By: Emission Nebula

Emission Nebula — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:02:04 +0000

Bravo to XCOR!!! Hopefully like you said it will cause other programs to lower their cost. I would so love to visit space one day. But at the cost they are right now theres no way.