We've long believed that money can in fact buy happiness, and now we know its price: $200,000. Richard Branson, British Virgin frontman and unapologetic megalomaniac, is the kind of guy we can really get behind: fabulously wealthy, but with a magnanimous desire to fulfill the fantasies of entire generations and get rich doing it. Basically Batman without (as far as we know) the vigilantism. Five years after Branson's SpaceShipOne became the first privately-owned vessel to reach space (where does the time go?), commercial space flight is a beautiful reality. Late Monday (or early Tuesday, we can't be sure. It's England), Virgin Galactic unveiled SpaceShipTwo, the craft that - for a small fortune - will bring you to the stars. Or at least fairly close:
At 60-feet long, with both windows and overhead portholes, it will seat eight people — two pilots and six passengers — who will experience about five minutes of weightlessness. At maximum altitude, astronauts will be able to see the curvature of the Earth, a view that until now only few people have been able to experience.
Hard to believe. We point out pretty often here the disparity between what we were promised as children - flying cars, jetpacks, etc. - and what is actually available in the endless tedium that is daily life. A $200,000 price tag notwithstanding, commercial space flight is a pretty monumental step in the direction of our dreams. One might almost say a giant leap, if one was so inclined. Man. Good times.
via TimesOnline
