BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson

Subject: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 01 Jul 21 - 10:36 PM

Bezos wants to go up with his brother and a space tourist. Branson wants to go too. Maybe go first.

Virgin Galactic versus Blue Origin. Branson stealing a launch?


Meanwhile, Elon Musk has already sent a Tesla beyond Earth's orbit. With a stuffed spacesuit at the wheel and the phrase "Don't Panic" pinned to the dash.

Personally I don't think going suborbital fills the bill. I think it's gotta be at least a full orbit. But that's just my opinion. Maybe Elon Musk will have a say.

Too bad Trmp isn't a real billionaire or he could have had NASA work him into their schedule. I think that's something we all would'v'e liked to see.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Jul 21 - 12:10 AM

Don't let any of them land until they pay their fair share in taxes.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Jul 21 - 07:12 AM

heh heh . BS: Billionaires in Space . brilliant
Faster than a SPEEDING bullet, more greedy than a Trump, its a pig its a plane,
NO its Billionaires in SPACE

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Jos
Date: 02 Jul 21 - 08:32 AM

Several of those egos scrambling to be first sounds to me like a disaster ready to happen ...

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Jul 21 - 01:33 PM

How soon they forget....

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Jul 21 - 11:09 AM

Now, if only Zuckerberg and a bunch of Waltons would spend enough to ride along...and maybe a Koch.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are too smart... as are Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Mr Red
Date: 03 Jul 21 - 05:57 PM

Several of those egos scrambling to be first sounds to me like a disaster ready to happen ...

Just my thought, and then I thought:
"Putting all your egos in one basket"

As many an airline pilot will tell you, all take-offs are optional, all landings mandatory. Er maybe not if you are going orbital.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 03 Jul 21 - 06:06 PM

Well put but let us not delay
remembering that orbits do decay.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Mr Red
Date: 04 Jul 21 - 05:17 AM

True, they could get their fingers burnt! Depends on the height, and velocity, but I was considering one lifetime.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Mr Red
Date: 04 Jul 21 - 06:33 AM

Meanwhile there is a video discussion on the two flights which includes names of co-passengers including "aviation legend Wally Funk" - not only will she be the oldest astronaut, but the oldest woman in space.

And the video discusses what height space can be defined as, and the narrater thinks the US version of 80km is a good threshold. Bezos is going over the international level - 100km. Branson thinks he will be first.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Jul 21 - 10:22 AM

Wally is most deserving of all. She will have a short flight however,
"CODGERS IN SPACE", How the non tax paying elderly are able to build their own spaceships. Rocket science has been considered the most difficult thing to do followed by brain surgury. Its time to reconsider that old saying, 'Its not Rocket Science' now that Jeff is in charge and Ben Carson is not the genius people claimed.

In fact I find that there is a wisdom in stupidity and ineptitude!
When we look at ants they are EXTREMELY successful despite being stupid and inept. Stupid and inept people are not ants. Ants have not created a climate change that could kill the Earth.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Mr Red
Date: 04 Jul 21 - 04:26 PM

Point of order, Mr Chairman. Ants control their climate, termites & their anthills especially so. Hence the shape.

In fact, the "ants sir lie in the soil" (Brits of certain age will get the allusion)

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Jul 21 - 08:34 PM

point of order Mr Chairperson,… the speaker is not speaking to the motion, …. allowing this person to move this motion contravenes standing order number 42, that the mover of the substantive motion cannot move a procedural motion which closes debate.
also the speaker is repeating the same points he has already made 20 years ago. Besides the specific facts the speaker is giving are correct but not to the enormity of the end of all life. (Note: this is not a statement of opinion, but of fact and assumes the person raising the point of order can validate the point and violates the tenents of Kruger - Dunning.)
Ah well, now the speaker’s time limit has expired.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: mayomick
Date: 05 Jul 21 - 04:22 PM

I saw this on twitter:
Sim Kern
@sim_kern
·
Jul 3
If any of you are under the impression that our billionaires might succeed in "escaping" to space, while the world burns, let me put those fears to rest with what I know from being the spouse of a NASA flight controller. ??
Sim Kern
@sim_kern
·
Jul 3
For a half-dozen people to exist up on the ISS, it takes a ground team of thousands of people, constantly problem-solving how to keep them alive. Their quality of life is bouncing around in a narrow tube with the same 5 people who can't really bathe for months. /
Sim Kern
@sim_kern
·
Jul 3
Every minute of their day is micromanaged so they can survive. They follow strict exercise regimens to keep their bones from turning to goo. They spend a ton of time studying systems and conducting repairs on equipment that's continually breaking because SPACE WANTS TO KILL YOU /
Sim Kern
@sim_kern
·
Jul 3
Their sleeping situation is akin to a floating coffin. Their pooping situation is a 20-something-step process in a port-o-potty where everything FLOATS and the door is a plastic curtain. The wifi cuts out at regular intervals. The food is NOT michelin starred, to say the least. /
Sim Kern
@sim_kern
·
Jul 3
The only reason they're alive up there at all is because multiple countries have thousands of brilliant, highly-trained engineers and doctors and astrophysicists and computer experts whose full-time job is keeping the astronauts alive and the ISS functioning. /
Sim Kern
@sim_kern
·
Jul 3
When something breaks, as it continually does, these teams SCRAMBLE to devise fixes and solutions. And these fixes, lemme tell ya, they are tedious. This year, working from home, I have seen the schematics and overheard bits of meetings, and oh my GOD is it tedious. /

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 05 Jul 21 - 04:48 PM

They still haven't charged anyone for drilling a hole in ISS that allowed oxygen to escape and threatened evacuation. It was definately not an accident.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Acorn4
Date: 06 Jul 21 - 03:44 AM

"In Orbit"

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 07 Jul 21 - 04:04 AM

This all seems to be nothing but a self justification for those who have more than they can ever spend in multiple lifetimes to continue to suck more out of economies to go to their pockets.

I never understand why those who will never need any additional money still need to add to their wealth.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Mr Red
Date: 07 Jul 21 - 07:48 AM

I never understand why those who will never need any additional money still need to add to their wealth.

It ain't about the money per se. The money is merely a pat on their backs that they got it right (in the narrow, rarefied reasoning of their definition of success).

In many respects, Musk has a much higher definition of success. to rid the planet of ICE cars, and trucks. And he may well be dead before that is near total. Yea, I know he is going to space, but even there he is far more successful.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Jul 21 - 10:37 AM

Mr Red with all due respect it is the nature of money to take on a life of its own. Ex Mrs. Bezos gave away about 2.7 BILLION dollars but the remainder made another 3.3 Billion while she wasn't looking.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 09 Jul 21 - 03:48 PM

Elon Musk is well known for his (aspirational?) quote:

"I want to die on Mars, but not on impact!"

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Jul 21 - 10:18 AM

I hope Branson has better luck than he had with his balloning exploits.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Jul 21 - 07:53 PM

This reminds me of the wealthy idiots
who go traipsing off to the Himalayas
so they can say they climbed Mt. Everest,
and then they get their guides killed
when the weather goes pear-shaped ... remember?

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Mr Red
Date: 11 Jul 21 - 02:19 AM

I hope Branson has better luck than he had with his balloning exploits.

Or his pilots. eg Steve Fossett

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Mr Red
Date: 11 Jul 21 - 01:31 PM

Branson flight - it must be very recent - only 5K views

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Jos
Date: 11 Jul 21 - 02:05 PM

One (safely) down, two to go.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 11 Jul 21 - 10:41 PM

Surely I can't be the only one who thinks Bezos's rocket looks like a giant cosmic vibrator?

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 11 Jul 21 - 11:02 PM

He did it. He went his own self, and he got back alive. I'm so jaded I can't super excited about it because he didn't orbit. And I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, the Bezos shoe. And I'm wondering if Musk has something planned that is not yet in the public domain.

But, well done, Richard.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 05:45 AM

Yuri Gagarin went round the world in orbit went I was a little lad. A super-rich, scruffy thrill-seeking idiot goes straight up and straight back down again over half a century later and gushes about his experience of a lifetime, etc. All I can say is, thank God for the tennis and the football drowning him out. And for Tim Peake, Bob and Doug & co.

(And I can't even stand tennis...)

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 06:34 AM

As usual anyone with dyslexia Steve calls an idiot, besides Richard was only going 5 miles per second.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 06:43 AM

What an utterly stupid remark. And for the record I didn't know about his dyslexia. Get a bloody life, Donuel.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 09:29 AM

New Mexico has built the newest 250 million dollar commercial space port.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 10:55 AM

Here's a great comment from a Guardian reader from a few weeks ago:


In yesterday's Guardian we learned that

'Jeff Bezos reported such a low income that he qualified for, and claimed, child tax credit in 2011.'

It is better for the rest of us that such a deeply flawed character is sent a long way away for as long as possible, along with Branson, Sugar, Dyson and any number of other perambulating pathogenic pustules whose warped misunderstanding and misuse of the purpose of wealth creation is the cause of so much unhappiness.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 11:24 AM

He only sees ego but I see a space tourism industry introduction.
It kinda started when Russia charged 20 million per passenger for an ISS delivery and return when they had the only shuttle on Earth.
However the Branson spaceship has bigger fins than a 1959 Cadillac and why is the Bezos spaceship circumsized?
The price is now only 250,000 and could go down.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 01:16 PM

Perhaps you'd care to tell us how a "space tourism industry" would benefit 99.9999% of the citizens of this planet. Or the environment, come to think of it. Or space even.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 02:51 PM

You don't have a spare 250K?
Its an expensive roller coaster yes but its a bucket list winner fer sure.
I bet you've spent a cummulative 250K on your travels Steve, or do you only travel on all expense paid junkets, boondoggles and hostel accomodations? {:o =<
I doubt you are only about generosity to mankind.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 04:24 PM

Perhaps you'd care to tell us how a "space tourism industry" would benefit 99.9999% of the citizens of this planet.

Getting millionaires or billionaires to part with their money can be difficult. The 'space tourism industry' is getting them spending, rather than just building up their financial assets. Their spending (even on something so, apparently, pointless as space tourism) creates employment, and generates more spending further down the supply chain. All of this spending also generates taxes, which the government can then spend to generate more jobs and thus more taxes.
I'm sure some would argue for preventing the millionaires from spending, in which case they might just leave their millions to the next generation of millionaires, who can also just sit on the funds.

Money is the oil that greases the wheels of industry.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 05:48 PM

Well, the arch-capitalist wing of Mudcat has spoken...

I have another thought, Nigel. It involves preventing these unimaginably wealthy people from accumulating all that wealth in the first place by having a fairer taxation system (cue ripostes about "disincentivising them..."). That way, we won't have to persuade them to make pointless up-and-down trips in silly non-spacecraft that not only damage the environment but which will disincentivise the rest of us to care about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 07:33 PM

there he goes again believing he speaks for the rest of us but taxing the rich is GREAT idea.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 08:03 PM

Well I certainly wasn't speaking for you. You were included in the arch-capitalist cabal, as you are defending as a real respectable wheeze some thrill-seeking ultramoneybags "going into space" at a quarter of a million a pop. Incidentally, the US is one of only a few countries that think space starts at fifty miles. Most of the rest of us think that space starts twelve miles higher, so the vacuous Branson, at a mere 53, didn't make it after all. However, I'm sure you yanks will enjoy giving him his astronaut's badge.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 10:43 PM

How to manage wealth at the beginning of time.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Mr Red
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 03:03 AM

The price is now only 250,000 and could go down.

Well - like rockets, the price can go up as well as down.................


in which case they might just leave their millions to the next generation of millionaires, - &/or become POTUS - and how would that turn out? Doesn't bear thinking about....................


At least these two put their life where their money is. It sort of is a marketing ploy.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 04:36 AM

From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 05:48 PM

Well, the arch-capitalist wing of Mudcat has spoken...
There goes the rabid left-winger again. I give a straight answer to his question and he starts in with insults. Attack the man, not the answer. Not the best of responses, but if it's all that Steve has to offer . . .
I have another thought, Nigel. It involves preventing these unimaginably wealthy people from accumulating all that wealth in the first place
These 'incredibly wealthy people already have that wealth. All you could do is prevent others from becoming as wealthy (unless you have a time machine)
. . .by having a fairer taxation system (cue ripostes about "disincentivising them..."). Ah, good, at last the arguments against punitive taxation of those who seek to better themselves seem to be getting through. I don't need to mention the arguments as Steve is clearly already aware of them, even if he gives them no credence.
. . .That way, we won't have to persuade them to make pointless up-and-down trips in silly non-spacecraft that not only damage the environment but which will disincentivise the rest of us to care about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Jos
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 04:40 AM

I thought space began where weightlessness begins - in which case Branson did make it into space, and at least he landed on a runway according to the agreed plan.
Yuri Gagarin came down in a potato field, many miles from the planned landing site. According to a recent BBC account, he hitched a lift in a horse and cart to get to the nearest telephone (but I haven't found that bit of information anywhere else).

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 05:46 AM

I don't mind being called a left-winger, but I'm not sure about "rabid"...big house in the country a 15-minute walk from some of Britain's most beautiful coastline, paid for, two cars in the driveway of my half-acre garden, all debts long paid off... :-)

AND I've been known to shop at Waitrose...

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 06:02 AM

You'd have to go a hell of a long way from Earth to be even close to truly "weightless," Jos, if by that you mean so far away that the effect of the Earth's gravity becomes, in effect, negligible (there's gravity everywhere,though). There's no sudden level in space where weightlessness "starts." though of course the effect can be achieved via certain manoeuvres of the space craft, being in orbit (free fall) being one of them, or momentarily when you reach the highest point your rocket takes you before you start to come down again. Indeed, the effect can be simulated at ground level. "Zero-g force" is a good way of putting it. You could go to the gravitational balance-point between the Earth and the moon, I suppose, but you'd have to sit very still. It's complicated and I am only a biologist.

.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 06:14 AM

try out your god like powers in space

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 12:34 PM

Stephen Hawking was once gifted with a short period of weightlessness in a plane flying a ballistic arc.

"On April 26, 2007, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking
    experienced microgravity aboard a modified Boeing 727."

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 05:22 PM

I'm pretty sure Branson and his companions achieved weightlessness. They merely didn't orbit.

He delivered on his promise. Which is more than many of the earthbound achieve.

As far as political ideologies go, it is easier to achieve flight with two wings than one.

For some reason I'm reminded of Heinlein's book, "The Man Who Sold The Moon." It was about a financial titan who decides to go to the moon, and his mixture of finagling and idealism to accomplish his task. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if all our spacefacing billionaires of the present have read it, especially Musk.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 06:20 PM

I think Musk is perfectly willing to let Bezos and Branson have temporary headlines. He knows he is way ahead of them with a powerful, dependable system... and he can land them over & over. I have no idea whether he is planning a trip himself.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 07:23 PM

"He delivered on his promise. Which is more than many of the earthbound achieve."

Well I could promise to rob three banks a day for the next week, but you wouldn't praise me if I delivered on it, would you? I think one or two of us here could do with being just a little more "earthbound," actually...

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 08:45 PM

I remember the pilot who died flying the Branson spaceship.
The co pilot is crippled for life. Its worth an honorary mention.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 08:50 PM

If Steve used a weapon to rob a bank I would NOT praise him... if he used a kitten to rob 3 banks I would praise him.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Mr Red
Date: 14 Jul 21 - 02:42 AM

You'd have to go a hell of a long way from Earth to be even close to truly "weightless,"

Well now. The ISS achieves something that you cannot gainsay, because whatever you argue, the error will be unmeasurable, by you. And most people. And while we are being pedantic, and measuring our weight in ato-Newtons, could we point out that Earth's pull on orbiting objects varies around the circumferencial because of mascons eg around Hawaii. The alleged thing that slammed into us and produced the Moon, it is postulated, left a denser lump of mass in the Earth. NASA knew to calculate for this very early on. Earth is not a sphere per se, nor a perfect oblate spheroid.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jul 21 - 03:07 AM

Well it's easy enough to knock someone down by quoting half of their sentence, leaving out the vital caveat. As for the rest of your post, call me Mr Thickie but I don't know what you're on about.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 07:45 AM

Mr. Red is engaging in ultimate hair splitting. Where do you draw the line between force and distance? We fudge it.


technically we don't share identical gravity even at sea level due to density differences. At an altitude of 1 mile air density will be a greater factor than less gravity and immensly more than time slowing.

everything effects everything to a point.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 05:29 PM

"Everything affects everything" is a blandishment that allows anyone to say anything. The effect is to diminish the relevance of anything that someone says.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Mr Red
Date: 16 Jul 21 - 02:50 AM

mascon
gravity anomaly

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 20 Jul 21 - 05:11 PM

And now our Jeff has gone and returned alive with his passengers. A good time was had, but it was "dark".

I think I'd think about it if I could have an espresso while I was up there.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jul 21 - 06:58 PM

robo its a good way to succinctly say gravity is forever. How close you want to look is a decision, not a boundary.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Jul 21 - 07:06 PM

A billionaire does a vanity "space" flight lasting ten minutes. On so many levels it's just bloody obscene.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 20 Jul 21 - 10:15 PM

He did it cheaper than NASA. He had the oldest and the youngest passenger sent into space to date, and his own (Bezos') brother. The rocket booster that carried the capsule self landed separately. You could see how little was required to sent the payload up, as the rocket was narrower than the capsule with the passengers (none of them was in command of the flight). It was made to look far easier than it truly was.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 21 Jul 21 - 01:26 AM

"Jim, you can't show that on CBS!"

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 21 Jul 21 - 01:38 AM

The Mekon is out there laughing his head off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Mr Red
Date: 21 Jul 21 - 03:17 AM

Gravity sucks

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 21 Jul 21 - 10:51 AM

A buddy of mine when his kids were real young, had a couple of T-shirts made for himself and wife that said "Fight Entropy". He had one made for each of his kids that said "Support Entropy".

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 22 Jul 21 - 03:24 PM

Bezos in Space - "I coulda been a contender"

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Jul 21 - 06:45 PM

billionaires in space

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 23 Jul 21 - 07:15 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T39XgrKXUwU&ab_channel=NovaraMedia

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: robomatic
Date: 24 Jul 21 - 12:11 AM

That last video, from PFR, mentioned that Bezos' rocket was hydrogen and oxygen. I thought it was pretty quiet, considering, but I do not know what the recording conditions were. And certainly a rocket to orbit would be considerably larger.

Subject: RE: BS: Billionaires in Space: Bezos $v$ Branson
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Jul 21 - 02:48 PM

Relative to the size of a normal schoolroom globe these guys went several millimeters above Earth.
Musk has plans for Mars which in relative terms is a mile away.

Sometimes you can almost see the Kamen line as in this photo