Richard Branson’s space travel vision is to make private space flight available to the masses. Branson is an entrepreneurial genius and also a daring adventurer. He has built a billion dollar business in the record industry and then extended his successful into the airline industry as well. And beyond those mega businesses he has started hundreds of other smaller businesses too.
Aside from his entrepreneurial pursuits, he is also a bit of a daredevil. He has set records for crossing the Atlantic in a speed boat and he has attempted to circumnavigate the globe in a hot air balloon a number of times. His attempts at ballooning have almost cost him his life when he was forced to crash land in the ocean.
Space Travel
And for his next act, he wants to conquer the final frontier. Yes, he wants to be among the first private citizens to venture into space and he has started a company called Virgin Galactic to do just that. Virgin has already booked quite a few paying passengers for its first few space voyages and as the price comes down, more and more people are likely to take Branson up on his offer to travel into space.
Since man first ventured into space, people have dreamed of the day when recreational space travel would be possible. And we are getting very close to that point. There is no definitive date when space travel will commence. But apparently we are getting very close to the point when Virgin Galactic will open for business and take the first paying customers into space. Eventually, you won’t need to be a wealthy hedge fund manager to pay for space travel. Branson’s dream is to make it affordable for the masses.
Space Plane
Branson’s space plane is called SpaceShip Two and it was designed by Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites. Like Branson, Rutan is a genius in his field of aerospace. Prior to building space planes, Rutan built Voyager. Voyager was the first airplane to fly around the world without stopping to refuel. For his next act, Rutan designed SpaceShip One. SpaceShip One was the first private space plane to make it into space.
For designing the first private space plane, Rutan was awarded the Ansari X-Prize of $10 million. But Rutan apparently spent more than this to win the prize. Then Branson approached Rutan to build SpaceShip Two which will be used by Virgin Galactic to shuttle the first space tourists into space.
Space Flight
Space flight has always been something that has captivated the hearts and minds of the people of the world since the first satellite Sputnik was launched. For a long time space flight was confined to the military and government controlled space agencies. But now this is no longer the case. We have reached the point where private citizens and even a hawaii dentist will be able to enjoy space travel and indeed a number of private citizens have already been into space.
The future of space flight is very bright. In addition to Scaled Composites a company called SpaceX which is operated by Elon Musk, one of the founders of PayPal and of Tesla Motors is also building rockets. If all goes according to plan, SpaceX will be contracted by NASA to take payloads into space. It will become the first private company to do this for NASA and it is another pioneer in space flight.
So it appears that we are on the verge of a new era for humanity, the new era where we venture to the stars. And who knows what we will find there. Will we find other inhabited planets or will we discover that we are alone in the universe? Untold riches await us in the stars. Some scientists theorize that when a blue dwarf collapses it can convert all of its carbon into diamond. And this diamond isn’t small, it is the size of an entire planet and that would be quite the rock.
In addition to writing about space flight, I have also written a kona coffee review. In it, I talk about some of the best coffee on Earth and what will probably be one of the best coffees in space too.