# Virgin Galactic Spaceways Readies For Flights
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 27, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369 "2004-09-27T22:33:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/1 "2004-09-27T22:33:00Z")
[Anybody got $208,000 I can borrow?](http://www.wired.com/news/space/0,2697,65098,00.html)
> [@](#):
>
> British entrepreneur Richard Branson said Monday that his company plans to launch commercial space flights over the next few years.
>
> Branson’s Virgin transport, entertainment and communications group has signed an agreement with pioneering aviation designer Burt Rutan to build an aircraft based on Rutan’s SpaceShipOne vessel, Branson said.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2004, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/2 "2004-09-27T23:54:13Z")
How about I pay $50, and they just duct tape me to the front of the heat shield?
It’d be worth it.
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/3 "2004-09-28T01:06:56Z")
[Official website.](http://www.virgingalactic.com/) They’ve got a kick ass logo.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/4 "2004-09-28T02:55:27Z")
Well, I guess _I’m_\* going to be learning how to write _really good_ screenplays and selling them to Hollywood for Sizable Chunks of Change… 🙂
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### Author:  [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/5 "2004-09-28T03:05:18Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> Well, I guess _I’m_\* going to be learning how to write _really good_ screenplays and selling them to Hollywood for Sizable Chunks of Change… 🙂
You´d better start by learning how to type properly. 😉
So… 208.000 the trip?, let me check my life earnings, yep, I think I have enough for them to allow me to peek my head, blidfolded, into the hangar where they keep SS-1 and snif the air for 1.2 seconds.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/6 "2004-09-28T04:03:36Z")
Gack.
Anyways, Casting a Second Pair of Eyes Over the Document is what editors are for. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/7 "2004-09-28T04:10:07Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> Gack.
>
> Anyways, Casting a Second Pair of Eyes Over the Document is what editors are for. 🙂
I think you meant to post that in [this thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=277399)
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/8 "2004-09-28T04:24:25Z")
The want to call the first ship the “VSS Enterprise”.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/9 "2004-09-28T04:28:09Z")
\
Oh. Dear. Og.
I have enough errors when I’m _trying_ to eliminate them. If my fellow technical writers, when working in editor mode, didn’t have gimlet-like eyes of steel and the fearsome ability to down-check an entire chapter if a single full stop is out of place…
…well, our manuals would look a lot crappier, that’s what.
If (judging by the thread) her books had to pass our checks, Anne Rice would probably have a heart attack, and then go shrieking off into the night as some sort of bloodless undead phantasm, to disturb the rest of writers everywhere with keening laments about the improper use of the apostrophe…
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/10 "2004-09-28T04:29:16Z")
Back to the OP… that is Extremely Cool, but I wonder whether Paramount would have something to say about that name?
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/11 "2004-09-28T04:33:46Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> Back to the OP… that is Extremely Cool, but I wonder whether Paramount would have something to say about that name?
Are you kidding? The current series is in the ratings tank, so if they’ve got any brains at all, they’ll work out cross promotion deals with Virgin.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/12 "2004-09-28T04:44:30Z")
**Enterprise** has been a name for a military ship for a long time. Three aircraft carriers have been called _Enterprise_. I’d be surprised if Universal could maintain a trademark on that.
Although given the law today, maybe someone can make a case that since it’s a spaceship and uses “VSS”, it’s clearly meant to profit off the good name of the series or something.
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### Author:  [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/13 "2004-09-28T05:54:06Z")
$208,000? Guess I’m going to be taking ValuRocket.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/14 "2004-09-30T01:52:11Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#):
>
> **Enterprise** has been a name for a military ship for a long time. Three aircraft carriers have been called _Enterprise_. I’d be surprised if Universal could maintain a trademark on that.
Yes, it would be _very_ hard…seeing as how Paramount owns Star Trek. :smack:
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### Author:  [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2004, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgin-galactic-spaceways-readies-for-flights/266369/15 "2004-09-30T04:15:38Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#):
>
> Although given the law today, maybe someone can make a case that since it’s a spaceship and uses “VSS”, it’s clearly meant to profit off the good name of the series or something.
Paramount might have grounds to sue for [trademark dilution.](http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/dilution.html)