Arch Dornan
Oh, lovely. They've sent me a mo-ron.
Lil Uzi Vert ‘Working On’ Buying Planet WASP-127b, Grimes...
Though it's not exactly clear how the process of doing su...
www.complex.com
Mine mine mine.
Space General Space News, Image and Discussion Thread
- Thread starter AndrewJTalon
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www.complex.com
Mine mine mine.
Did he buy a fancy cape yet? Is he working on an 80s 'stache?Lil Uzi Vert ‘Working On’ Buying Planet WASP-127b, Grimes...
Though it's not exactly clear how the process of doing su...
Mine mine mine.
There seems to be a competition for a Virgin Galactic flight being run by a site called Omaze.
It seems like a legitimate organization, and seems to give money to good causes wether or not I win long odds to actually get a ticket. So, I'm tempted to through $50, maybe $25 bucks as a donation to space, with an added perk of space flight.
But, I don't know anything about these people either, so if anyone knows anything else, that would be neat. If the whole thing is legit, well, maybe this is something other people might be interested in.
It seems like a legitimate organization, and seems to give money to good causes wether or not I win long odds to actually get a ticket. So, I'm tempted to through $50, maybe $25 bucks as a donation to space, with an added perk of space flight.
But, I don't know anything about these people either, so if anyone knows anything else, that would be neat. If the whole thing is legit, well, maybe this is something other people might be interested in.
Arch Dornan
Oh, lovely. They've sent me a mo-ron.
Oregon congressman proposes new space tourism tax
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) plans to introduce legislation called the Securing Protections Against Carbon Emissions Tax Act, which would impose new excise taxes on space tourism trips.
www.space.com
Very quick to cash in.
bintananth
behind a desk
I'm wondering who came up with that acronym word salad. The SPACE portion makes it sound like something most would be inclined to support without actually reading the bill or knowing what's in it.Oregon congressman proposes new space tourism tax
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) plans to introduce legislation called the Securing Protections Against Carbon Emissions Tax Act, which would impose new excise taxes on space tourism trips.
Very quick to cash in.
If it's really targeting carbon emissions instead of just a blatant cash grab I can think of three rocket fuels of the top of my head which don't contain any carbon: hydrogen, ammonia, and hydrazine.
Of course a demorat tries to strangle another way to escape their grasp in its crip.Oregon congressman proposes new space tourism tax
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) plans to introduce legislation called the Securing Protections Against Carbon Emissions Tax Act, which would impose new excise taxes on space tourism trips.
Very quick to cash in.
Electromagnetism is a property of spacetime itself, study finds
Imagine if we could use strong electromagnetic fields to manipulate the local properties of spacetime—this could have important ramifications in terms of science and engineering.
sciencex.com
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
Who else was stoked about the first commercial space flight? Not the FAA, who changed its rules to exclude Jeff Bezos and declare he doesn't count. Also from now all, all Astronauts have to get permits from the FAA, and their rocket licensed by the FAA, no more civilian fun allowed.
www.upi.com
The timing is remarkably suspicious, the same day Bezos launched they changed the rules.
Rare FAA rules change means Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin crew may not get official 'wings' - UPI.com
Federal aviation regulators have made a rare change to the requirements for its Commercial Astronaut Wings Program, meaning Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos may not officially be recognized for his spaceflight this week.
www.upi.com
The timing is remarkably suspicious, the same day Bezos launched they changed the rules.
Doomsought
Well-known member
I'm pretty sure there are laws against that. I hope Bezos sues.
Who else was stoked about the first commercial space flight? Not the FAA, who changed its rules to exclude Jeff Bezos and declare he doesn't count. Also from now all, all Astronauts have to get permits from the FAA, and their rocket licensed by the FAA, no more civilian fun allowed.
Rare FAA rules change means Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin crew may not get official 'wings' - UPI.com
Federal aviation regulators have made a rare change to the requirements for its Commercial Astronaut Wings Program, meaning Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos may not officially be recognized for his spaceflight this week.
The timing is remarkably suspicious, the same day Bezos launched they changed the rules.
Is this forbidding space launches without pre approval from the FAA, or is it just about the astronaut wings? I'm wondering if this is petty but harmless, and if regular civilian flights happen it does make sense that not everyone who rides a mile above the space line gets astronaughts wings. Or is this going to actually fuck over launches?
bintananth
behind a desk
Space launches from American launch sites already require FAA pre-approval. This is just the FAA being petty about who does and does not get astronaut wings because space tourism is now a thing.
I'm not saying that Bezos should fly one of his rockets into their HQ. But it's sooo difficult to pilot a spacecraft once it gets locked into a flight-path, no?
Zombie Spacecraft from the Apollo 11 mission may still be orbiting the Moon. The Eagle Lunar Ascent stage was jettisoned from the command module Colombia back in July 21st, 1969 after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first moon landing and was assumed to of been launched into a retrograde orbit which would've had the craft crash back into the Moon. But that assumption could be mistaken.
www.discovermagazine.com
New Evidence Suggests Apollo 11's Lunar Ascent Module Could Still Be Orbiting the Moon
NASA assumed the Eagle module eventually crashed into the Moon. Now a new analysis suggests it is still up there and might even be detectable from Earth.
www.discovermagazine.com
Virgin Galactic Spaceflights will soon be commercially available for the all time low down price of $450,000 per passenger!
www.bbc.com
The company previously sold tickets for a mere quarter million prior to 2014 and a fatal accident which put future flights on a long term hiatus.
Virgin Galactic space flight tickets to start at $450,000
The firm has reopened ticket sales after successfully completing its first fully-crewed space flight in July.
www.bbc.com
The company previously sold tickets for a mere quarter million prior to 2014 and a fatal accident which put future flights on a long term hiatus.
I mean, if he can fill seats at those prices, go for it. Especially if it pays for more seats and ships driving the per seat price down long term.
Hopefully this is the "hey, who wants to pay our development costs up front" charge. Like Kickstart backers. And that true operating costs are lower.
Found their quarter report.
investors.virgingalactic.com
So, in the second quarter, they made about $570k, with a cost of revenue, which should be "direct" costs of revenue, closest thing to variable costs easily available, of about $63k. That would be a base per unit profit of about 90%.
However, there is about 38 million in selling, admin, and general, and another 36 million in research and development. This adds up to a operating loss (per quarter) of about $73 million.
This suggests annual losses are currently in the $300 million dollar range. It also says they have about 600 reservations. So, if they were able to sell all of them the tickets in a year at the $450k price, that would raise about $270 million. Which is not enough to cover current per year expenses.
Assuming he sold for $450k, 90% of the ticket price was profit over the cost of the flight itself, so about $400k profit per flight, Virgin would need some 750 tickets per year to break even on current costs. At current capacity of about 6 passengers, that would take about 125 flights per year to break even at the $450k price.
Virgin Galactic is burning through piles of money for not super clear gains. They still have tons of money to burn, about 500 million in cash by the balance sheets. Some of that is pre booked tickets though, with deposit amounts apparently sitting at about 80 million dollars in customer deposits. So, if that's all pre paid $450k, they need to provide about 180 "free" flights before they can generate any new revenue.
The big safety blanket in all this is that their a publicly traded company, so the plan currently seems to be to sell $500 million or so dollars in shares every year.
They're hope seems to be to be able to run 400 flights per year per aircraft. This is something they can't do yet: the current one apparently has an 8 week turnaround, the next one which is supposed to come along soon has a 1 week turn around. If he can get 5 of those up and launch each one once a week, so say 250 flights a year, maybe boost up to 8 passengers for 2,000 flights per year. If the total costs could be kept per year to about $300 million, then break even cost there would be $150k.
So, getting down to $200k requires that scale of operation, which is still an immensely high cost. Then again, if they had $200 million in income, that could justify a market cap around $4 billion, which if Virgin could capture about half of that in stock sales, the stock sales could still cover all past (about a billion in current deficits so far) and a future capital investments. In which case at 2,000 seats a year they can potentially cover all operating costs at about $100k.
Hopefully this is the "hey, who wants to pay our development costs up front" charge. Like Kickstart backers. And that true operating costs are lower.
Found their quarter report.
Virgin Galactic Announces Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results
Quarter of Strong Operational Progress Including: Successful Completion of Third Spaceflight; First Spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico; Unity 21 in May Approval from FAA for Full Commercial Launch License in June Successful Completion of Fourth Spaceflight; First With a Full Crew...
So, in the second quarter, they made about $570k, with a cost of revenue, which should be "direct" costs of revenue, closest thing to variable costs easily available, of about $63k. That would be a base per unit profit of about 90%.
However, there is about 38 million in selling, admin, and general, and another 36 million in research and development. This adds up to a operating loss (per quarter) of about $73 million.
This suggests annual losses are currently in the $300 million dollar range. It also says they have about 600 reservations. So, if they were able to sell all of them the tickets in a year at the $450k price, that would raise about $270 million. Which is not enough to cover current per year expenses.
Assuming he sold for $450k, 90% of the ticket price was profit over the cost of the flight itself, so about $400k profit per flight, Virgin would need some 750 tickets per year to break even on current costs. At current capacity of about 6 passengers, that would take about 125 flights per year to break even at the $450k price.
Virgin Galactic is burning through piles of money for not super clear gains. They still have tons of money to burn, about 500 million in cash by the balance sheets. Some of that is pre booked tickets though, with deposit amounts apparently sitting at about 80 million dollars in customer deposits. So, if that's all pre paid $450k, they need to provide about 180 "free" flights before they can generate any new revenue.
The big safety blanket in all this is that their a publicly traded company, so the plan currently seems to be to sell $500 million or so dollars in shares every year.
They're hope seems to be to be able to run 400 flights per year per aircraft. This is something they can't do yet: the current one apparently has an 8 week turnaround, the next one which is supposed to come along soon has a 1 week turn around. If he can get 5 of those up and launch each one once a week, so say 250 flights a year, maybe boost up to 8 passengers for 2,000 flights per year. If the total costs could be kept per year to about $300 million, then break even cost there would be $150k.
So, getting down to $200k requires that scale of operation, which is still an immensely high cost. Then again, if they had $200 million in income, that could justify a market cap around $4 billion, which if Virgin could capture about half of that in stock sales, the stock sales could still cover all past (about a billion in current deficits so far) and a future capital investments. In which case at 2,000 seats a year they can potentially cover all operating costs at about $100k.
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Undertone
Active member
FAA Commercial Space Transportation Wings are issued to *flight crew* passing 50 mi altitude, so FAA will give Virgin SS2 *pilots* wings. Branson probably could have sat up front if he wanted, but the pilots don't get zero-G float time, so... choices, choices.
Bezos made a decision to publicize the fact his flight was entirely automatic. He *could* have claimed he flew the mission entirely using Alexa voice commands and someone probably would have believed him enough to get FAA to pin CSTs on him. So points for honesty, at least.
Anyway FAA does *not* issue Astronaut Wings to passengers. This isn't just an FAA thing. The space agencies operating the ISS will still call you a "spaceflight participant" if you buy your way on.
FAA regulating flights is a separate issue. IMO Elon's little feud with FAA this year ended up with SpaceX wearing all the egg on their faces. And the regulations are getting less onerous: the FAA saying 'wait a minute, show us your data' is a major improvement from the Air Force telling you 'no way ever, and we don't need to tell you why!'
killerofa23
Well-known member
This might be controversial but if you get wings you should actually have done something like elon contribute to the design and development
Speaking of Elon, another SpaceX achievement maybe occurring soon.
US News said: