Richard Branson's commercial space travel Mothership: Bound for success or failure?

Success

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by Adrian Perkasa

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When Henry Ford started to produce Model T car in 1908, it seems like there was no hope. People argued that car was only for the rich, and horse was the only reasonable transportation for the poor. But Henry Ford still launched his Model T car, a simple, easy to repair and cheap car. The car gained a big success, and he became a one of the biggest automotive tycoon of all time.

Starting something new is always a winning. Yes, beside those success inventor, there also so many failed inventor, who lost their belonging for their invention, even his life. But there are no success without trying. Trying is a little winning for anyone who dare to do it, and success is the trophy for his achievement.

There are one big hole in our aviation history. For many years, human has been able to fly inside the atmosphere layer. In the 60's, we have launched rocket with astronaut to outside the atmosphere layer, some even has landed to Moon. But there are gaps between flying inside and outside of atmosphere. with a jumbo jet plane, now everyone can fly inside of atmosphere layer and go anywhere on this planet. But flying to outside of atmosphere is another thing. It's about getting outside of atmosphere (the first critical phase of flying) getting used to zero gravity (which makes our skeleton and body weaker) doing activity (eating, drinking, sanitation procedure which is very different from what we used to do on Earth) and go through the atmosphere (the last critical phase). Only a very trained and well educated person can be a astronaut, while we, can only watch them do spacewalking on television... until now.

But Richard Branson seeing this gap as a big opportunities. He believes that our latest technology is already suitable for traveling to outer space with "suitable" price. He acclaimed that his plane can bring untrained ordinary people to outer space, comfortable enough to keep doing their activities, and go back into the atmosphere.

I've seen the picture of his outer space plane in newspaper. Honestly, it's still a big question how it will go through into atmosphere after the body impact while leaving atmosphere. But this question will never been answered if no one tried it. Richard Branson is a reputable adventurer, he even made several world record breaking attempts. He is very qualified, he won't risk his own life for impossible adventure. It's said that he will bring his wife and kids to this tour, it will be a big gamble for him.

Good luck branson. If you meet aliens out there... Just send peace message from earth!

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