Kamd50
04-16-2007, 12:21 PM
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- One is a secretive aviation legend who made history by designing the first private manned rocket to reach space. The other is a publicity-savvy entrepreneur shooting to take his famous brand literally out of this world.
So far, any announcements on when the first customers might experience zero gravity has been one-sided, with details only trickling from Branson's Virgin Galactic camp.
Excerpts:
"The sleekly designed Virgin Galactic Web site promises amateur astronauts a spacious cabin to float around in and large portholes to coo at the curvature of the Earth. Initial flights will rocket out of the Mojave and later from a still-to-be-built spaceport in New Mexico where voters earlier this month narrowly approved a tax to support the project."
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"So far, any announcements on when the first customers might experience zero gravity has been one-sided, with details only trickling from Branson's Virgin Galactic camp.
Branson recently told a trade show in California that construction of the Rutan-designed SpaceShipTwo will be ready within a year, followed by another year of flight tests. If all goes well, Virgin officials say the spaceship will be unveiled by early next year with the maiden commercial launch in 2009."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/16/space.oddcouple.ap/index.html
So far, any announcements on when the first customers might experience zero gravity has been one-sided, with details only trickling from Branson's Virgin Galactic camp.
Excerpts:
"The sleekly designed Virgin Galactic Web site promises amateur astronauts a spacious cabin to float around in and large portholes to coo at the curvature of the Earth. Initial flights will rocket out of the Mojave and later from a still-to-be-built spaceport in New Mexico where voters earlier this month narrowly approved a tax to support the project."
...................
"So far, any announcements on when the first customers might experience zero gravity has been one-sided, with details only trickling from Branson's Virgin Galactic camp.
Branson recently told a trade show in California that construction of the Rutan-designed SpaceShipTwo will be ready within a year, followed by another year of flight tests. If all goes well, Virgin officials say the spaceship will be unveiled by early next year with the maiden commercial launch in 2009."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/16/space.oddcouple.ap/index.html