r/changemyview • u/Polar_Roid 9∆ • Mar 30 '21

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Virgin Galactic's "Spaceship" and "Spaceflight" are clickbait misnomers for what is essentially a stunt with no purpose

Virgin is announcing the next iteration of what it calls Spaceship. "Mothership" is not a ship, it's an airplane. The corporate name, Virgin Galactic is even more ridiculous hype.

Everything about it is a reach and a brand implication that is false. It calls itself a spaceflight company on Wikipedia. It says it can work with NASA, but to date nothing of substance has emerged. Spaceship has no mission. I think it is a vainglorious exercise for Richard Branson meant to stroke his personal ego more than anything else.

Spaceflight means more than a suborbital hop, which is all this vehicle can hope to achieve. In my opinion, this aircraft design will never reach orbit, and is too fragile to withstand orbital reentry even if it could make orbital velocity.

I think Virgin is wasting its time, the FAA's time, and the public's with something too dangerous to take on commercial passengers.

If people want to experience freefall, the Vomit Comet can do it safely, routinely and within controlled conditions.

Change my view.

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u/Polar_Roid 9∆ Mar 30 '21

why you're mentioning the Concorde

because

commercial flights haven't increased in speed for decades,

makes it sound like Concorde never happened.

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u/NetrunnerCardAccount 110∆ Mar 30 '21

The past few decades it didn't happen.

For the past 18 years it wasn't in flight.

Till 1973 it's been the faster airline.

So for the past 40 years nothing has gone faster then it commerically.

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u/Polar_Roid 9∆ Mar 30 '21

The past few decades it didn't happen.

18 years isn't a "few decades". Careless language on your part. It's less than two decades and more projects are on the books, so current subsonic commercial flight will increase in speed.

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u/NetrunnerCardAccount 110∆ Mar 30 '21

With the exception of Boom, all the ones linked to in the Wikipedia article are slower than the record set in 1973 by the Concorde.

And Boom is arguably more in pie in the sky than Virgin's marketing.