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

Success

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by Mike Mccarthy

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This is not virgin on the ridiculous! Historically, everything that Richard Branson has put his mind to has succeeded. Mr Branson is one of the worlds great entrepreneurs and has the vision to invest at the right time. There are certainly enough grown up rich girls and boys willing to pay for an adventure in space.

There is certainly a precedent or two, Dennis Tito, a Californian businessman paid over 15 million dollars to be a passenger on a Russian Soyuz rocket and then spend time on the ISS (International Space Station). Anousheh Ansari, an American-Iranian Businesswoman was the first female passenger with a Company called Space Adventures and I am sure this wasn't a cheap journey. However it was her family that funded the X-Prize with a 10 Million Dollar prize for the the first team to build and fly privately a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to an altitude of 100km (62 miles) twice in a two-week period. So you can see, there are plenty of people with a genuine interest in adventure space flights, with the money to back that interest.

Space ship one has a history of funding by Paul Allen (Co-Founder of Microsoft) and this rocket won the X-Prize. It's second flight saw it wearing the Virgin Galactic branding, so an intention could already be seen. Space ship two will be the Virgin development based upon the original Space ship one, and it will be in this vehicle that one will be able to experience space flight for a price.

Will this be a commercial success? Most likely. it is probable that the Virgin Brand will be the first commercial brand to be seen outside our atmosphere. Mr Branson had many sceptics when he started his airline and he proved them wrong, Virgin Galactic will have the same effect upon those that doubt the success of this venture.

It is quite likely that this off planet venture will give birth to a whole new industry and will be another quantum leap in scientific development. Let's also not forget that such development will have a requirement for new jobs, in new fields and for this reason alone, Virgin should be encouraged in their endeavours.

How facinating it is, to see another element of science fiction becoming our reality. For all of those readers of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein, to be able to soar into the thinness of space for real, it will be a lifetime experience. Although I do wonder if you will still get those in flight slippers and what Club Class will be like.

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