BBC Horizon: The story of the tourist race for space

this space tourism could be fantastic.
Will it become affordable in our lifetime is the question.

I enjoyed it though I was hoping the geek would do it even though I knew he didn't.

Good Show

LOL ... so was I!

Watched the programme but didn't enjoy it at all. Space tourism was presented as a new frontier when it's just sub orbital money making and good advertizing for Branson. Yeager and Slayton were going up to similar altitudes and speeds 50 years ago and besides they're only about 82000m/h short of actually escaping earth gravity. One of the dreamers spoke of man's destiny to move out into the solar system and colonize it. I bet he spent his formative years watching far too many westerns. Finally, the voice over was too dramatic and seemed to pitch his voice towards a younger audience than the programme was intended for. I'll go to bed now and read The Right Stuff (again)[/i]

:oops: Apologies, got the escape velocity wrong. It's c. 25000m/h or c. 7 m/sec :oops:

Watched the programme but didn't enjoy it at all. Space tourism was presented as a new frontier when it's just sub orbital money making and good advertizing for Branson. Yeager and Slayton were going up to similar altitudes and speeds 50 years ago and besides they're only about 82000m/h short of actually escaping earth gravity. One of the dreamers spoke of man's destiny to move out into the solar system and colonize it. I bet he spent his formative years watching far too many westerns. Finally, the voice over was too dramatic and seemed to pitch his voice towards a younger audience than the programme was intended for. I'll go to bed now and read The Right Stuff (again)[/i]

Interesting how differently people can view things.

Personally I think it IS a new frontier. Plain ordinary joe-soaps like you and me going into space and experiencing weightlessness with more more traning than we need to be a passenger on a 747. The closest we ever got to that was Concorde where we coudl see the curve of the earth and sip champaigne but even that is gone now.

Bring it on I say!

As for the advertising for Branson, considering he is backing the winners of the X prise I thought he got very little airtime and that a lot of time was given to the other future contenders. you can bet your bottom dollar an American version of that Documentart would have been nothing but Burt Rutan and Richard Branson and mad over the top sensationalist tripe from the comentator! And speaking of comentators, that guy is the standard Horizon comentator and his style has been the "Horizon way" for years. At this stage I can nip into a documentary half way, hear the first bit of commentry and tell pretty much straight away whether or not it is Horizon!

I'm intrigued by your statement that it was pitched too low. I can't say I felt belittled by the comentary so I don't think I agree but I'm genuinely curious as to the agegroup you felt it was pitched at and the age-group you think he was appropraite for?

Isn't the commentator the same guy who's been doing it for many years ???

I was very impressed by the vertical take off and landing mini-rocket, it just shot up and came down so quickly, it almost looked like it was going to crash and then just slowed down near the ground and landed gently, that was very cool :shock: it was like something out of thunderbirds. :lol:

Seriously though, I'd would really love to go up there, even if it was for a few minutes, its the only place you could go to and be gaurenteed a dark sky
I'd bring a pair of binoculars and have a good look into space, imagine seeing stars like rigel without twinkling or seeing M42 as it really is.

the title "VirginGalactic" is abit over the top, its like having a bus service between limerick and shannon airport and calling it, " transport intercontinential"
Maybe something abit more solarsystem orientated??