Another great day for TSLA, up 59 points or 7%. But today in SPCE? Crazy, up 23% to $37.35. Their earnings (LOL!) will be released after the market closes on Tuesday, 2/25. Looks like Jonas's recent pump has already reaped him his 2020 MS bonus. Holding off for now, but getting tempted by the July 17 20' expiration Puts. By then the IPO lockup period for SPCE should be over.
My understanding is that the solid part is the fuel, a plastic, and the liquid is the oxidizer (Nitrous Oxide). IIRC the idea was to have a simple engine whose thrust could be controlled and instantly shut off. I don't think they view blowing off the top of the combustion chamber as a good design for a manned vehicle.
News out this morning that VG is partnering with NASA to provide a readiness program for private astronaut trips to the ISS. Virgin Galactic will organize private passenger trips to the space station for NASA Virgin's stock SPCE is up about 15% on the news. I understand that this deal could result in a few extra suborbital flights for VG, but would only seem to create a minor financial blip. I'm guessing they might benefit mostly by gaining a little more street cred. Just an opinion, VG will have to fly thousands of flights to grow into their current valuation of 3.6 billion dollars. And all of them have to come back to earth safely.
Orbital: object is in orbit around the Earth. Like the ISS and satellites. Suborbital: object does not reach orbit but does reach space (100m altitude or greater) and then returns to Earth.
So sub-orbital is more like a short joy ride going straight up and coming right back down. Don't see the point in why would someone do these except to get a feeling of Disney ride on steroids.
Its kind of a to each their own deal. There's less risk in going suborbital, less training in going suborbital, and there's really not a whole lot to do once you get to space. Its not like there's a ton of missed experience getting to the top of the mountain and turning right back around.
LEO that SpaceX typically goes to is basically 17,000 MPH or 27,300 KPH. As Elon says, getting into orbit is more about lateral speed than it is about altitude. Both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin New Shepard are trying to get above the Karman Line. That is 100 km (62 miles) in altitude above the Earth. Kármán line - Wikipedia The reality is that Blue Origin succeeds at going above the line and, so far, Virgin Galactic has not. Spacecraft One (the precursor to VG ships) was successful at doing this twice to win the X-Prize. Here is a launch that shows the speed once the rocket reaches orbit at SECO.
Virgin Galactic did a reveal of their cabin design today. Here's Scott Manley's coverage of it. Here's Virgin's presentation: Start at 21:30
This morning Virgin Galactic's first powered spaceplane attempt in almost two years failed to properly ignite the rocket motor. Virgin Galactic aborts first powered spaceflight from New Mexico spaceport From VG's Twitter account, "Early update on flight: The ignition sequence for the rocket motor did not complete. Vehicle and crew are in great shape. We have several motors ready at Spaceport America. We will check the vehicle and be back to flight soon." I've come to respect "Elon Time" for the apparent motivational and productivity gains it generates. Branson and company regularly advance timeline goals that have never come close to panning out. Typically many months will pass before they make any news. When they don't succeed, PR statements are issued from a parallel universe. It's as though they're approaching a black hole, hoping that no one is paying attention to the clock on earth. With a current valuation of 7.5 billion, this SPCE leaves me befuddled.
i agree 100%. I visited VG development center in Mojave two years ago. It was on the weekend but the place was a morgue. No sense of urgency whatsoever. It was also quite different from SpaceX in that all production was custom and hand done or so it seemed. It did not look like anything was going to be repeatable or reproducible. Which is kind of what we’ve seen. Next market downturn they will be one of the first stocks up against the wall.