Thursday 7 April 2005

Deja Vu All Over Again

From The Australian :
Flamboyant entrepreneur Richard Branson wants to bring his "Virgin Galactic" spaceships to Australia and says he has already had approaches from several state governments.
[...]
Sir Richard said in Sydney that the plan was to build sufficient spaceships to allow the establishment of separate bases around the world.
[...]
The British entrepreneur said the space flights would be a great spectacle and attract wealthy individuals. In time, he hoped to bring down the price of space travel to make it more affordable.

But he was reluctant to put a figure on the reduced price.

"I'm not getting drawn on that, otherwise no one's going to pay the initial price, but it will come down after 10 years or so," he said.
Several interesting items here - multiple spaceports, a price so high that if you have to ask "how much?", you can't afford it. But maybe this time, Virgin Galactic will actually make things happen.

Unlike Kisler Aerospace at Woomera.
Or APSC at Christmas Island.
Or United Technologies at Weipa (Cape York).
Or ULSI at Hummock Island, off the Queensland Coast.

There's a History of things like this happening. Or rather, not happening.

Still, even if Virgin Galactic can't get it's US export license (something that's killed more than one project before now), maybe Space Adventures will come good. Who was it who said that "Hope Springs Eternal within the human breast?"

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