Aabar Invests in Virgin Galactic

Aabar Investments is a middle eastern company that apparently has a strong interest in spaceflight; they have just shelled out $280 million for a 32% stake in Virgin Galactic. This is great news.

Not only does this add credibility to the profit potential for space tourism, but it gives Virgin Galactic the money to use their technology for a new purpose: satellite launches. Virgin Galactic intends to use some of this money to develop a small satellite launch system using WhiteKnightTwo. They've been hinting at this potential for a while, but now it looks like it's going to happen.

Also, the announcement includes potential plans for a spaceport in the middle east, likely near Abu Dhabi. So now I suppose when Nermal is shipped to Abu Dhabi, he will have something to do there.

Obscure references for the win!

Trip to Space

Progress: 5.86%  Flight Time: 0:08:47

Solar Array

Progress: 5.59%  Power: 56W

An Open Letter on Health Care

To all of the elected officials of the United States,

I am writing this open letter to discuss the condition of health care in this country. I have recently had a couple of personal experiences that has prompted this letter.

A few weeks ago, I came down with appendicitis. I had to have a CAT scan, surgery, and a brief stay at the hospital before missing a week of work while I was recovering. Within the past year, the company I work for has handed me two pay cuts and effectively reduced the level of my health care insurance coverage. Due to all of this, I'm expecting to pay nearly $2,500 after my insurance coverage for this relatively routine procedure, and due to the fact that my recent pay cuts have reduced my ability to save for emergencies, I'm either going to have to put that all in a credit card or dip into my long term savings to pay for it.

...and I'm one of the lucky ones.

My brother recently had to have a cyst removed from his tailbone that was causing him back problems. This has required two complex surgeries and an extended recovery period. My brother has a near-minimum-wage job with no health coverage. And because his job requires driving and he cannot sit until he is fully recovered, he is out of a job for the foreseeable future. He is now without a penny in the world, and my parents are having to pay for his rent and his and medical bills, which are likely well over $10,000. Even worse, because he is expected to continue to have back problems, he now has a pre-existing condition and getting insurance in the future will be nearly impossible. If nothing changes, he will likely spend his life praying nothing else goes wrong because if it does, he will once again be thrown into poverty.

I'm not asking for help with our personal situations. It's a hardship, but we can handle it. What I am asking... no, imploring you to do is to do anything you can to support a single-payer health system in this country. Cries that this would put a bureaucrat between us and our doctors are silly; we already have them in the form of health insurance companies, and those bureaucrats financially benefit from denying us the help we need. I can't imagine what all the people with cancer, or AIDS, or any number of horrible diseases in this country are going through on top of their physical suffering. Many are in financial ruin, having become effective slaves to the insurers. No, this situation cannot stand. We are better than that.

Please, please support a single-payer system, or at the very least a strong, affordable public option. Such an option would not solve the problem, but at least it would be a start.

(I have sent this letter to my senators, my representative, and President Obama. I would urge anyone reading this to send letters as well.)

Trip to Space

Progress: 7.03%  Flight Time: 0:07:33

Solar Array

Progress: 3.28%  Power: 49W

Spaceport America Groundbreaking!

This was an exciting weekend for the space tourism industry!

The groundbreaking ceremonies for Spaceport America were held Friday at Las Cruces, New Mexico. However, the thing that everyone is talking about is the flyover that the VMS Eve made after the event. Yes, I said after. Initially, Eve was expected to make a flyover during the groundbreaking ceremony itself, but a technical issue delayed the flight. No matter, though, because the flight happened in spectacular fashion the following day. Eve flew from Phoenix, AZ and made half a dozen passes over the existing airport before departing for the Mojave airport. By my count, this marks Eve's tenth test flight.

And thanks to the blog Personal Spaceflight (the writer of which I am extremely jealous), we have an excellent video for all to share.



Trip to Space

Progress: 7.03%  Flight Time: 0:07:33

Solar Array

Progress: 3.28%  Power: 49W

Appendicitis!

So yeah, I've been suffering from a bout of appendicitis, had an emergency appendix extraction, and was out for a while, during which (of course) lots of fun space tourism news happened. Here's one of the highlights:

The next space tourist was announced! The founder of Cirque de Soleil, Guy Laliberté will become the first Canadian space tourist. In cooperation with Space Adventures, he will launch in a Soyuz vehicle toward the International Space Station in September (if all goes well). And in another first, he has dedicated his flight, in cooperation with the One Drop foundation, to raising awareness about the lack of clean water around the world.

Woo!

Trip to Space

Progress: 5.03%  Flight Time: 0:07:33

Solar Array

Progress: 3.28%  Power: 49W

Space Tourism CEO to Review NASA Policies

See, this is why I like Barack Obama.

If there is one thing NASA needs, it is to be run more like companies like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX, who at every turn develop their spacecraft to be as simple as possible so that they are cheaper and so that there is less that can go wrong. To give you a stark example, a space shuttle has over two million moving parts. SpaceShipOne has thirty.

Yeah, you read that right. Moving parts in a space shuttle: 2,000,000. Moving parts in SpaceShipOne: 30.

And we wonder why the shuttle program is so expensive and why those freaking shuttles break all the time.

Recently, Barack Obama's administration has been putting together a commission to examine NASA's future and make recommendations on how to proceed with manned spaceflight after the three remaining shuttles are retired next year. They may even re-examine the Ares program.

It was announced in the past week that Jeff Greason, the CEO of XCOR has been named to this committee. XCOR Aerospace is another space tourism company dedicated to building low-cost, low-complexity spacecraft.

And if there is one thing NASA needs, that is less moving parts.

Trip to Space

Progress: 5.03%  Flight Time: 0:07:33

Solar Array

Progress: 3.28%  Power: 49W

SpaceShipTwo Engine Test

Woo, finally some space tourism news!

It has been a while, hasn't it? And it's not for a lack of trying; there just hasn't been much news out there. Well, now there is, and it's a doozie.

In a surprise announcement, Virgin Galactic released video of the first test of SpaceShipTwo's engine. And here it is, narrated by none other than Sir Richard Branson.



Around the same time, Virgin Galactic's Will Whitehorn announced the first long-distance flight of VMS Eve, SpaceShipTwo's carrier aircraft. The flight will occur June 19, during the groundbreaking ceremony of Spaceport America. The aircraft will fly from Mojave to the event and then back without stopping. Whitehorn also suggested that SpaceShipTwo's first unpowered tests will begin by the end of the year, and also hinted at was that the first paying customers may fly in one and a half to two years.

It couldn't come soon enough!

Hey, look at that. As if in an omen, my trip to space savings reached 5%.

Trip to Space

Progress: 5.03%  Flight Time: 0:07:33

Solar Array

Progress: 4.05%  Power: 60W

Cheesy Star Trek Eposides

Guess what I've been watching?


Yeah, I made that. Click on it for full effect.

Trip to Space

Progress: 4.58%  Flight Time: 0:06:52

Solar Array

Progress: 3.28%  Power: 49W