Virgin Galactic: $200,000 Ticket to Ride

at Discovery dot com. Previous one was at how stuff works dot com, So it's the same email address, just at a different domain, Discovery. That's right, you go. The mothership. Yeah, speaking of motherships. Um, we are of course talking about

Virgin Galactic in this particular episode. Uh, And I guess we were kind of uh excited to discuss this again because just last week and there was a story that was suddenly everywhere and I think it like it originated like the Sun or something like if you track it

down to a tour it was. It was a British tabloid, but but still the idea got people talking because the idea was that record executives were interested in sending jay Z and Beyonce um up into a sub orbit aboard spaceship to the Virgin Galactic Space Tourism vessel so they could shoot a video. It's a wonderfully Um, It's just it's such a fun idea because I mean there's so

many different angles. I don't know, there's sort of the one percent angle of just jay Z and Beyonce dropping four thousand dollars just to go into space and not look out the window. Like, I find that amazing. Uh. The idea also of them going into orbit and and maybe being a little stick al right, having their little vomit bags. Yeah, yeah, you know, and then and then trying to shoot a video around that I find kind

of amusing. And I just the idea of jay Z and space is of course fantastic, especially if Beyonce it feels a little ill and Kanye ends up going up with him instead. You know, that's the one time that I would really want to be an extra. Yeah. Yeah, I'd totally be an extra on that video. Are you kidding? I mean, not only are you uh, you know, going into space, but that you're you're getting to watch, you know, celebrities vomit on themselves. Yeah, and don't normally have to

pay pay quite a premium for that. What you'd be paying for quite a premium for that. I would be wiping vomit off my face. I just realized, So maybe I need to rethink that. But here's the deal. I mean, this is a possibility. It's it's right around the corner.

Virgin Galactic has been saying that they're in the final phase of creating this great vessel and their spaceport, and some people are saying, well, maybe it'll happen in although more most likely will be but you know, with the U. S. Bace Shuttle program being put this is something to look

forward to. Yeah, I mean, and I've I've spoken with interviewed Stephen Attenborough, the commercial director for Virgin Galactica back and I also talked to Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides, and uh, and they were both, you know, they were they were to get asked all the time and when's

it going up? What's the date, and they're they're very hesitant to to throw it out any kind of date because then, you know, they if they say it's going to go up fourth quarter of then they're going to suddenly be sort of feel kind of beholden to that date, and this is not something they want to rush. They want to get this right because I mean, you were talking about, uh, traveling into SubOrbit. We're talking about traveling into space. Uh monumental you know first when we actually

have the first commercial virgin plactic flight take off. So you know, they wanted to to look to work perfectly just if nothing else from a from a pr standpoint, well in a business model too, right yeah. Um, So, like I mean, let's talk a little bit about what suborbital flight is, which is what the vessel the craft

will be going into. Right, We're talking about reaching an altitude of approximately sixty eight miles above the surface of the Earth um, and that is six point two miles above a boundary line, uh that we call the Carmen line, which by most definitions is where the atmosphere ends in

outer space begins. Now it's important to stress here that there's there's no just like the Earth's atmosphere kind of just dies off gradually, and it varies exactly when the atmosphere would be ending and when space would be begin based on on on where you're looking in the various atmospheric conditions. But but also but basically it's just kind of dies off. It's like, imagine there's a bad smell in our room. There's not a point where the bad

smell begins it ends, as much as where it fades away. Okay, this is also what we're talking about here, is sending a craft into space and bringing it back down without circling the Earth. And just so you guys know, now says X fifteen has ascended beyond the Carmon line only twice. And the higher you go, the higher the G forces are going to be on the way up and the

way down. So um, this is mainly why this height is achievable to us right now, because it works within the confines of our own humanness, right in our ability to with stand G forces. Um. And also just that reentry it's really important on um, well, we know it's one of the biggest problems of engineering right right. And uh yeah, the ship that itself spaceship too is actually designed to go even higher than sixty eight miles. But you have to keep in mind again business model, this

is about tourism. This is about reaching as many people as possible because you want to be able to sell them that pricey ticket. Uh so they The goal for Virgin Galactic has been to make it to wear. Human beings between the ages of twenty two and eighty eight would be fit enough to take the ride, so it wouldn't be one of these things where only people in their twenties and thirties, you know, in good hell, you know. This is not the astronaut program. This is space tourism,

so the goals are a little different. So it's like the ultimate roller coaster for for a variety of ages. Right, Yeah, if Granny wants to go into the SubOrbit, Granny gets to go into SubOrbit. She's just gotta be able to PLoP down the cash. My favorite part of this is the way that Branson describes it, which is the sexiest spaceship ever. That's it's such a ridiculous concept because most spaceships are kind of phallic anyway. So I mean, it's like,

I can't help but think of that. So he's like, you imagine saying, I'm going to create the most phallic spaceship imaginable. But I mean it's really it is a very attractive looking plane. And then they have the there's the White Knight that takes it up to uh yeah, yeah, let's talk about what this looks like, because it is sexy looking. Actually. Um, it is a vehicle that's designed

to carry six passengers and two pilots. And if you're looking at it, it looks like it almost looks like three planes lined up together, right, yeah, Because the White Knight has two cabins yes to two fuselage bodies. It looks like like like two dragonflies holding hands. Oh that's pretty, that's beautiful. Um. And the White Knight, just you everybody knows it's not part of the actual craft that that

shot into the ether there. It is actually the part that boost the craft up to fifty feet right right, in the same way as a space shuttle. Uh, you know, it uses the booster. It would use the boosters to reach a certain altitude and then it would jetison the boosters and fly the rest of the way up. This is kind of like that, except the boosters. Instead of plumbing back to Earth, they go and land at an airport. Which I mean, that's that's pretty smart, right yeah, yeah,

far less waste, a lot more economically feasible. Um. And another way to look at it is and I think this is the way that Virgin galact tends to frame it is that the White Night is the launching platform for Spaceship two, but instead of the launching platform being on the ground, they fly the launching platform up to a high altitude itself, so it's you know, it's it's given in a ride and then it can walk the rest of the way and as a result that they

use less fuel and their carbon footprint is far less. Um. So, the cabin measures an ample seven point five feet in diameter by twelve ft in length, and that seems to be enough room to float around, right. Yeah. And there are a lot of little porthole like windows just sort of scattered throughout, and those are measuring up to seventeen inches in diameter, about twice what your commercial aircraft window

would be. Yeah, and not everybody's gonna get a lot of personal space, but like you said, you know, you're gonna be thrown up on each other potentially, so so you know, you might as well get a little cozy yeah. Yeah, um, you know, and this again, this is going to be a pretty big bonding experience for these six people anyway, yea um. And then the company has actually managed to sell more than four hundred and seventy tickets so far,

each with a twenty thousand dollar minimum deposit. Uh. And of course this is without setting any sort of definitive launch date. Um. And some of the luminaries that will be on this space craft besides possibly jay Z and Biance of course, uh, Angelina and Julie and Brad Pitt on board. UM. Brian Singer, director of the first two X Men movies, Paris Hilton. Who, Um, well everyone knows Paris Hilton. Uh. We got royalty covered in the form of Prince Beatrice. We have science covered in the forum

of Stephen Hawking. Uh we have and then another Hollywood legend, we have Tom Hanks on board and to a lesser extent, Victoria Principle spice girl. Oh yes, no, she's not a spice girl. I think she's from like the nineteen she's Dynasty or something like that. Yeah, I think she's just the one who who wanted to have a special space suit, like she wanted like a pink space suit or something like that. Was that was in the news at one point.

Because for the most part, if it's virgin galactic related, um, you know, like space and science journalism, they're going to cover it um and and with good reason, because Virgin Galactic, I mean, Branson really throws his money and stuff, and they have great pr they have great images that they put out there for you well. And I have heard that their their commercial air flights are quite cushy in nice, so I can imagine that they would design a pink

space suit for Victoria principle. Now, now you mentioned that it's twenty dollars reserved the ticket two hundred thousand, as the title of the podcast suggests at that to actually board the flight, like that's the full price, And you had an interesting tidbit about Salmahyak. Yeah, yeah, she actually reserved a ticket and presumably she lost her deposit later when she became a mother and decided that that was a really bad idea, which was kind of like, okay,

I get it. You know, I'm a mother and I can understand like, oh, okay, if if something happens, that would be a travesty. But then we were discussing about how this is on par with irrational fears, and in particular flight right because we all know that it's far safer to fly than it is to get in your car and drive. Yeah, I mean not to discount the fact that, yes, this would be the suborbital flight, this

would be pretty groundbreaking. But Richard Branson has I mean, here's the personal steak in this going well, I mean

he's gonna be on that flight. But right, yeah, so, I mean that's the flight you would be on, Like you can safe on that flight, but on any terrestrial virgin light you know, or or or any random you know, drive across town like there is a huge engine figured though there's you know, a huge engine involved here too, but but just from a business standpoint, like well, like the version galactic engine is behind this thing taking off,

I think you're gonna be okay. And if you're not, I mean you're gonna go out and the blaze of glory next to uh you know, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt m H. I don't know about that, um. And I think that the end result is that you're still going to be a flaming meat bag, and that that's where people have the problem with that, Like still in the hiyak, right, I don't want to become a flaming meat bag. Well, we're all gonna become meat bags. So I'm I'm like, let's do it in SubOrbit, let's let's

do it above the common line. Well, and as we'll discuss later on, it's probably not you know, that's probably again in a rational fear that you could apply to trestual flight to you know, right, there's probably not even gonna be mass celebrity vomiting. Like I'm probably I'm overstating bat much less flaming celebrities. I'm just I'm just thinking about the image. Um, all right, in a moment here after there our break, we are going to talk about

what you get for two hundred thousand dollars. All right, we're back. I should also point out, if we're talking about the famous individuals and tickets, it should be noted that that Shatner captain kirk fame of course, Uh, he was offered a free ticket by Branson but turned it down because he's too cool for school. I mean, what's up with that. I don't think he's too cool, but I don't know, he's just too old and curmaginally too. It's like I've got my gig, I've got my con gig.

I don't I can't do it. Um, maybe you just hates flying, I mean because Ultimately it's a flight. Somebody he's just like, fly enough, okay, But it's a hundred and fifty minute flight. That's what we're talking about here. I mean, we're not talking about like going to the West coast. We're not talking about four hours here. Um. But do you know, just just to break it down, a hundred and fifty minute journey would be one thousand, three hundred thirty three dollars a minute. Are you guys

tagging that? And um, what you also get in your two hundred thousand dollars. It's a three day training course in g force and afety training at the company's training facility in New Mexico. And as you said, the training exercises do indicate that of humans can can do this right between the ages of eight and Passengers after completing training will load onto a rocket ship attached to a

carrier plane. That's the White Night that we've been talking to, the mother ship that will fly fifty feet into the air and then at that point, at about an hour in the rockets will detach and store more than three

hundred thousand feet into the air. And this is when things get really serious because the environment inside the craft is changing really rapidly, because now you're hurtling through space close to four times the speed of sound and about thirty seconds okay, with five g s coming at you at this point. And I'm sorry, but I'm kind of this is I'm getting excited by this, right, this is

really cool. And then and then when you begin to see earth of the window, right, Um, that's when the engine cuts off and it's complete silence and weightlessness is achieved. And that's when presumably like the little lights come on and say that you can take your seatbelt off. Uh, that's when you'll take off your seatbelt and experience zero gravity for a full five minutes. Yeah, and and and it's easy to sort of look at this and say, like five minutes. All right, you so you're gonna float

around for five minutes? Big woop? Is that really worth two dollars? Surprise? Not not or unsurprisingly? Uh, the virgin lack of people I talked to said, yes, it will totally be worth that money. And uh, and certainly when you when you look at and then they make a strong case because they point out that that everyone who has gone into space, uh, and who has looked out of a portal and seen the Earth from above. It's

changed their lives forever. Like it's not something where people are like, yeah, I went into space once, and you know it's like, really, you went too space. We've known each other ten years and you never mentioned that. No, this is the kind of thing that they mentioned all the time. Like you, if anything, you're sick of hearing

about your friend Charlie going into space. You're like, go, really, you're gonna talk about how you get to see the Earth from above and you realize we're all, uh, you know, a brotherhood of man blah blah blah. We've heard it before.

You know, it changes people. It's it is. I don't think there's any It may not be for everyone in the sense that not everyone is going to be willing to invest the money in it, but I I can't imagine anybody when we would go up there and see it so look out the windows, see the Earth, would

experience microgravity and would regret the trip. I know. I'm just thinking that this is total billionaire cocktail uh fodder, like cocktail party, Like, oh well, I went Hella skiing last weekend and I's been a really because I just saw the Earth like you know from space. Yeah, it's definitely. I guess it's you know, it's pretty much aimed at the one percent, you know. But yeah, yeah, I'm gonna

say that. I'm gonna go with that. Except I mean I will say though, if they want somebody from the lower to actually you have a seat, I'm happy to it to be that person. Oh yeah, yeah, along, I absolutely agree. Um, you know, in the name of science research podcasting, Um I could. I could do that. Yeah, I would do it in a heartbeat. I mean especially if and if I had two dollars just sitting around

and absolutely nothing else to do with that money. Like if two thousand dollars was nothing to me, then I could see myself buying a ticket. Yeah yeah, like ten ton of them, prer entire family. I do think it's a really incredible part of the whole flight. Yeah, yeah, which some well not really people, but say some space organizations are doing well. I was just thinking that if you were super crazy rich, you could have some sort of event up like they're like get married or somebody

will get married on vertictal actic. I know it will happen with the with the chair and everything. I don't think the light you bring it cool? Would that be in zero gravity? Based on this? But let's let's talk about a little bit more about the company UM and how this came to fruition the the spaceship to vehicle. Its predecessor had actually already explored suborbital space UM and claimed the ten million and a sorry X prize on

October four in two thousand and four. This is actually what caught Sir Richard Branson's eye, m because you know, obviously this is something that he wanted to do and UM, this is a design that he has been working on with the people who are behind the engineering of that. So the thing that that is most critical though to the design is re entry because we talked about that a little bit before, right, Like, re entry is the hardest part of this because again the higher you go, um,

I guess you could say, the harder you're gonna fall. Yes, yeah, you definitely you have to deal with the the intense physical challenges of re entry, the wear and tear that's going to inflict on the ship itself. Fiery re entry is is a phrase for a reason, right right, It just doesn't sound very pleasant, the air hitting the ship. No, but feathered re entry. Doesn't that sound wonderful? That sounds great.

That sounds like something that would be offered in a hotel, you know, yeah, feathery bed like they don't have a shower, it's like a heavenly shower in bath or whatever. You know. They have all these these cushy terminologies for things that aren't really that fantastic. But feathered landing that sounds great. I wouldn't be concerned about a feathered landing. It sounds so much better than violent reentry and fiery entry. UM. It's been compared to the flight of a shuttlecock in

Badminton and UM. It allows spaceship to to rely on aerodynamics and the laws of physics to control speed and altitude. And Spaceship two's ability to feather its tail section is the main safety feature here UM again one that allows a craft to return into this thick atmosphere from the

edge of space. UM and the entire tail structure of the spaceship can actually be rotated upward to about sixty five degrees and then in this feathered configuration, automatic control of altitude with the fuselage parallel to the horizon is achieved. So this creates a really high drag as a space it descends through the upper regions of the atmosphere, so again, you know, going into and out of makes it a little bit more I guess you could say elegant, right

and safe. That that's the main part of this. Branson says that the company spacecraft were built to exacting specifications and that they were able to mitigate a lot of the deletarious environmental effects of NASA's spaceship Shuttle program. And um he says that their technology, because it's brand new and not forty years old, we'll be able to put someone into space for less than their environmental price in an economy class ticket from London to New York and back.

And they said, quote on top of that, we can put satellites into space for almost no carbon output because we're launching them from sixt rather than the land based

satellite launches. So okay, this is where the possibilities start to grow a little bit more beyond just space tourism, right right, and and it really begins to look like the like the space tourism is kind of the leg up on not just the future of sending ultrawealthy celebrit these on a you know, their dream trip, but more on, you know, I'm getting a leg up on the next phase in the evolution of human space flight and space

exploration itself. And that is why I mentioned earlier that that there was was somebody that was interested in booking an entire flight for kind of a party. But it's not it's an it's it's not about Mitzvah. That's uh, that's planned, but it's rather NASA. For a four point five million dollar deal, they've managed to charter a full flight from Virgin Galactic, which includes an option of two additional flights, and on each of those pounds of scientific

experiments which in and out of it. So when I first read that, I was like, well that that doesn't really sound like much like what can you know, There's no way that a Virgin Galactic flight is anything, you know, on on par with a Space Shuttle flight. It's just, you know, you can be far limited in what you

can do and how you can do it. But if you again, if you look at it from the standpoint of Virgin Galactic is being the leg up on the next phase of of space exploration and and where the the privatized version of space X oparation is going, then it makes a lot more sense. Well, and then you know, is that the model that in the United States works in terms of space exploration? Is it privatizing? Is that?

Is that actually the answer? And not only that, is there going to be a possible you know, space port in in every state. Um. This also brings up the question about whether or not we'll have global high speed air and space travel, because you could you know, pretty much travel to anywhere in the Earth in two hours or less. Yeah, right, So this could change the landscape

of travel entirely, like intercontinental ballistic commute. I mean, you know, of course, the price would have to come down a bit, right, Yeah, it would. I mean that's the thing. I mean, this is kind of like the people who are talking about getting the ticket. You can think of them as the early adapters. Like before everyone you know got a like a certain smartphone, Um, there were only the people who had the interest and the funds to get said smartphones.

So that's another way important thing to keep in mind when you're laughing at the prospect of of paying two d thousand dollars for anything that's not a a house, you know. Yeah, yeah, Well, and then all sudden me if our ten year old listeners, because I'm sure we've

got something out there. I mean, by the time you're sixty, this might be a real possibility that you decide that you want to travel from you know, London to uh, I don't know, South America and under two hours and maybe the tickets a thousand bucks by then, who knows in a generation they'll take this for granted, that's right,

that's right. But in terms of suborbital flight, another reason to do it is is something that we've touched on before is something called the overview effect, right, and uh, and this is the idea is I've kind of joked about it earlier when talking about the you know, this hypothetical astronaut friend who won't shut up about this trip

into space. The idea that it changes you and uh in the overview effect is certainly part of that, the idea that that once you've you've seen the Earth from from orbit or in this case, sub orbit, that it changes something in you. It gives you some new perspective on what life means and and uh and and and maybe even how petty uh any of our different is are on Earth. A number of people have written about this,

most famously the the no Tech science guy. No Edic Sciences founder um edgar Mitchell talks about this because apparently this is something that a lot of astronauts experience, right. He described the sensation um of looking at at the Earth gave him a profound sense of connectedness with a feeling of bliss and timelessness. He was overwhelmed by the experience.

He became profoundly aware that each and every atom in the universe was connected in some way, and on seeing Earth from space, he had an understanding that all humans, animals, and systems were a part of the same thing, a synergistic whole. It was an interconnected euphoria. And this that that's the quote from um no Edics website talks about his whole impetus for for creating this no Edics science, which we won't go into. If you're interested in the

check out our podcast on the overview effect. But again, there's this idea that you are so changed by this whole new perspective that you have about life and your role in it. And that's why I'm I'm actually really like no joking, Like I would really love to see entertainers like jay Z, like Kanye, go into SubOrbit, experience this and be changed. Not because I think there's anything wrong with the jay Z and Kanye in their current incarnations, but I would love to see Space jay Z and

Space Kanye return. What would that be like? What would that that be for someone to take, For someone's whole creative flow to be reinvigorated by the overview effect, how would that affect their creative output? Well, I mean, you know, part of me thinks that they might start dawning like monks robes or something, um, you know, and just giving up all good, all materialistic pursuit. Well, let's not get silly about it. But oh, you're right, you're right. Maybe

just one diamond study here. I'm thinking maybe just maybe do some really cool tracks about how we're all brotherhood of man, that kind of thing. But I do wonder that, you know, to what extent can you really experience this?

Because you know, when astronaut is talking about the over view fact, they're also talking about having been in space for a month or so or more, and and some of the ruling right, yeah, and some of the studies that we've looked at before and that that I had researched when they were talking about space euphoria popping up as a as a symptom, it was it was something that was occurring well into a lengthy stay in space, and that's just not something that's going to happen with

virgin galactic yeah stage. But yeah, there's the whole question about work. Are you get enough oxygen to your brain? You know, because if you've been you know, sitting in a chair for ten hours for a month, you know your body is going to change. We've talked about that. There's a lot of things that happened to your brain and body. Now once space hotels are actually a possibility, you know, things may change a bit. And that's in space hotels are something that I mean, it's it's on

the radar for everyone looking at this. It's certainly not gonna we're gonna get the initial space tourism stuff down first, but but humans staying in space for recreation, that's it's on the chart. There's gonna be a red roof in pretty soon in space some pretty through to the world, Howard Johnson's yeah, ho Jon Space. Alright, Well, let's uh, let's put that one to rest and call over the robot to see if we have any listener mail to read. All right, here is uh, here's an email from our listener,

Rachel Rachel Rights, and this is hi, Julian Roberts. I wanted to tell you how much I have been enjoying your podcast. I buy nine miles a day to and from work and love listening to your podcast and audiobooks on my right. I've gotten caught up on my usual podcast and your podcast was recommended to me, and now I have been listening to archive of podcast. Thank you for giving me so many things to think about. In listening to your cheating podcast, I was shocked to hear

the percentages of cheating that people admitted to. I'm really hoping my daughters and their friends can escape this trap, and I'm disappointed in how unlikely that may be. As for me, I did cheat once in high school, but never in college. I agree with suggestions. The suggestion in your podcast at school felt like something that was done to me in high school. In college was something I

was choosing to do. My high school cheating stories when I've told my daughters, and one they thought was amusing. I was a senior in ap French taking the final. The teacher stood up during the final and told us in fringe that he was having a heart attack and needs to leave, which meant he left a class of under ten kids in a room alone taking a final. So we collaborated. We read out the questions and translated them and discussed them. Was it wrong? Absolutely? Should the

administration have put someone in that room to supervise us? Yes. As an aside, the teacher was fine after his heart attack, and he taught us for a few more years. Thanks

again for such a great podcast. It's wonderful. That's the kind of story I mean, it's I mean, on one hand, I mean, I can say I can certainly put myself in in her place, and then imagine myself in high school and suddenly the teacher is down, and you you and if and if, assuming that the teachers is cared for, and certainly he wasn't laying there before the whole time he he's out, the medical folks attending to him, and he may You're probably thinking, well, I really hope the

best for him, But I'm also kind of thinking I'm hoping the best for me. I can imagine these folks quickly deciding, yeah, let's let's collaborate. Let's do it. Say they're a bunch of opportune this, right, you know, but I'm glad the teacher is all right, yeah, and that there was nothing fishy going on. But now, if this was after school special I think that perhaps that things wouldn't have turned out as well for the teacher and

then this would have been some sort of storyline of morality. Right, yeah, as long as subsequent classes didn't try and exploit this by giving him a heart attack so that they could know that. Well, Hey, if you have anything you'd like to share with us, be it something about cheating or Virgin Galactic, let us know, you know, would you go up on Virgin Galactic? Are you planning to? And if you are Richard Branson and you're listening to this podcast, send me a ticket. I would like to go seriously

call me. But the rest of you can contact us on Facebook and Twitter. We are Blow the Mind on Twitter and we are Stuff to Blow your Mind on Facebook and again. New email address, that's right, take note it is is Blow the Mind at Discovery dot com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stup Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow,