# VirginGalactic's New Toys
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgingalactics-new-toys/434809
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 24, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgingalactics-new-toys/434809 "2008-01-24T12:29:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgingalactics-new-toys/434809/1 "2008-01-24T12:29:19Z")
[Gettin’ closer.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7205445.stm)
> [@](#):
>
> Virgin Galactic has released the final design of the launch system that will take fare-paying passengers into space.
>
> It is based on the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne concept - a rocket ship that is lifted initially by a carrier plane before blasting skywards.
>
> The Virgin system is essentially a refinement, but has been increased in size to take eight people at a time on a sub-orbital trip, starting in 2010.
>
> Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson said the space business had huge potential.
>
> “I think it’s very important that we make a genuine commercial success of this project,” he told a news conference in New York.
Damn skippy.
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### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2008, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgingalactics-new-toys/434809/2 "2008-01-24T12:35:14Z")
And they can do all that for only $200 000 a ticket, that really is a bargain, regardless of how seemingly short the trip up and down is.
Best of all you can travel on a space ship called “Enterprise” 😉 On the downside this’ll really mess up the opening montage for Star Trek Enterprise 😛
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### Author:  [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2008, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgingalactics-new-toys/434809/3 "2008-01-24T14:08:35Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin]
And they can do all that for only $200 000 a ticket, that really is a bargain, regardless of how seemingly short the trip up and down is.
Best of all you can travel on a space ship called “Enterprise” 😉 On the downside this’ll really mess up the opening montage for Star Trek Enterprise 😛
[/QUOTE]
They can just pull a George Lucas, and change things around.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2008, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgingalactics-new-toys/434809/4 "2008-01-24T14:16:24Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin]
Best of all you can travel on a space ship called “Enterprise” 😉 On the downside this’ll really mess up the opening montage for Star Trek Enterprise 😛
[/QUOTE]
They’re not going to call it ‘Enterprise’, are they? That’s nearly as corny as ‘Virgin Galactic’.
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### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgingalactics-new-toys/434809/5 "2008-01-24T15:03:45Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
They’re not going to call it ‘Enterprise’, are they?
[/QUOTE]
[You’d better believe it](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSS_Enterprise)😃
Slightly more appropriate perhaps is a sister ship, [Spirit of Steve Fossett](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSS_Spirit_of_Steve_Fossett), the Virgin Galactic brand dodging the bullet of having a space ship called “Voyager” 😛
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### Author:  [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgingalactics-new-toys/434809/6 "2008-01-24T17:51:26Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin]
[You’d better believe it](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSS_Enterprise)😃
Slightly more appropriate perhaps is a sister ship, [Spirit of Steve Fossett](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSS_Spirit_of_Steve_Fossett), the Virgin Galactic brand dodging the bullet of having a space ship called “Voyager” 😛
[/QUOTE]
**In the 23rd Century…**
_“This unit has been programmed by Sp’Sett to observe and record normal functioning of the carbon-units infesting USS Enterprise…”_
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### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virgingalactics-new-toys/434809/7 "2008-01-24T18:04:26Z")
NASA’s already made that mistake, fortunately [the probe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomad_rover) was limited to the Earth’s surface.