White Knight's "Britomart"
Britomart is Spenser's female knight in the Faerie Queene, and a good name we think for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, which, if all goes well, will have a stunning future.
WhiteKnight
WhiteKnight will carry Richard Branson's "Britomart" 50,000 feet into space. Then her rocket engine will fling her 65 miles above Earth's surface.
SpaceShipTwo - "Britomart"
On board: six passengers and two pilots. Three hundred people have already paid deposits for the $200,000 ticket price and the chance to see Earth from the stars while experiencing weightlessness. Richard Branson and his family intend to be among the first travellers. "After reaching the top of its trajectory, the craft will fall back into the atmosphere and glide to a landing like an airplane. Its descent is controlled by 'feathering' its wings to maximize aerodynamic drag."
Returning to the good Earth should be a very happy feeling.
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Comments (1)
Wait! Whoa! No fair! A capitalist creating a vehicle that NASA has not succeeded in creating!? Where is his respect for government? Who gave him license to make an entire institution (whose only small fault outside of fecklessness is covering up climatological fraud) look, well, foolish? Somebody sue him for hate-thought!
jlh | December 8, 2009 04:14 PM
Posted on December 08, 2009 16:14