Re: Virgin Galactic and Branson to fly today

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Ironically, on July 9, Blue Origin pointed out the differences between its New Shepard rocket and the Virgin Galactic spaceplane Unity 22, and how not a single member of the crew of the former had “an asterisk next to their name” and the astronaut title, like the crew from latter did. The difference was in the fact that New Shepard would fly above the Kármán line, reaching an altitude of 62 miles (100 km). Branson, by comparison, only reached 50 miles (80 km), so he didn’t really go to space.

According to the FAA, Bezos doesn’t get bragging rights as an astronaut just because he flew higher, so he’d better put that asterisk back. In the first revision since it established the Commercial Astronaut Wings program in 2004, the FAA has narrowed down the definition of “astronaut” so as to rule out future billionaires whose idea of space exploration amounts to joyrides in suborbital space.

One of the conditions for someone to get their astronaut wings from the FAA is that they travel 50 miles (80 km) above Earth, and both Bezos and Branson have met it. But the FAA is now saying that would-be astronauts must also have “demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety,” and neither meets this requirement. The change went into effect on July 20, the very day when Bezos made the inaugural 11-minute flight on the reusable rocket New Shepard.

Both Bezos and Branson have talked a great deal about how their space launches are for the benefit of mankind and might even, in some yet-to-be-explained way, help us solve all of our pressing problems here on Earth. Realistically speaking, if that is the case, it won’t become apparent for many years to come, when space travel becomes norm. For the time being, both missions were just experimental launches and very expensive joyrides.

As such, the FAA will not be awarding Bezos or Branson their astronaut wings anytime soon. It’s a good thing then that their companies designed their own, which they started wearing right after touchdown. That said, they could apply for an honorary set of wings from the FAA, but as of the moment of writing, no application on their behalf has been submitted.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/faa- ... 65894.html
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Virgin Galactic and Branson to fly today

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highdesert wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 10:00 am
cooper wrote: Thu Jul 22, 2021 1:31 pm
FrontSight wrote: Thu Jul 22, 2021 1:20 pm [youtube]https://youtu.be/3LPiM9d5QUM[/youtube]
Unspeakably good!
YES !
Boldly go where many have gone before! Heh, heh.

Seriously, when Bezos put on a cowboy hat after that and said it was all possible due to his customers or some such shit, my wife and I sat down and strategized how to get Amazon out of our life completely. I mean, I don't mind if someone comes up with a great idea and makes a lot of bucks. But Amazon is capitalism taken to its most toxic extreme. He didn't do it alone. Lots of people working hard to make his money--where are their penis-shaped rocket ships? This 21st Century Guilded Age is making me nauseous. Seems spaceships are the new Biltmore Estates--they're just an f-you to the country that made you rich.

One thing Bezos got right, though. If you're going to say f-you, do it in a cowboy hat. It diminishes yourself all the more.

Re: Virgin Galactic and Branson to fly today

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Got this e-mail today. Can’t say I don’t agree with the tone deafness...
“ Dear fellow MoveOn member,

I need to be honest with you, Juha. I’m appalled.

After returning from his multimillion-dollar 10-minute joyride in space earlier this week, Jeff Bezos got laughs and cheers from the gathered crowd when he said, "I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this."1

How could this man, who gained billions of dollars in personal wealth during the pandemic while millions of American families couldn’t afford to keep food on the table, whose company used an army of lobbyists to ensure that special tax breaks for Amazon were built into President Biden's plan to raise corporate taxes, and who deployed fearmongering tactics and lies to prevent Amazon workers from unionizing, joke about how the exploitation of his workers paid to fuel a private space race between billionaires?

If the two separate space flights by Bezos and Richard Branson in the last few days should show us anything, it is simply this: We must tax the ultra-wealthy, and we must do it right now.

And we have to get rid of the Republicans in Congress who are using every trick in the book to protect their billionaire donors while throwing the rest of us to the wolves.

That's why MoveOn is preparing to launch a huge television ad campaign targeting Republican senators who are up for re-election—like Ron Johnson and Marco Rubio—to remind their constituents that instead of working for the people, the GOP is working for Jeff Bezos, Rupert Murdoch, and corporations that exploit workers for their own profit.

Will you chip in $3 now to help get these ads on the air?

Just days before Bezos launched into space, a sobering new report was released showing that a full-time worker would need to make at least $24.90 an hour to afford rent for a two-bedroom apartment in any state in the country. Which means that many of those workers who paid to send Jeff to space can’t afford to pay for housing with the paycheck they receive from Amazon.2

Make no mistake: We are living in a Second Gilded Age, where America’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few billionaires who are using their riches to take joy rides to space while thousands of Americans sleep on the streets and millions more, especially people of color, ration their medication just to get by. It's far past time to raise the federal minimum wage and implement a wealth tax to rein in this rampant inequality.

If Democrats are able to hold on to or expand their majority in the Senate in 2022, we can pass legislation to undo the trillion-dollar tax scam passed under the Trump administration, close the loopholes that companies like Amazon use to shirk their responsibilities, and ensure that billionaires and the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share.

Getting this message out to voters now will help build the movement we need as we head into 2022. Will you chip in $3 to help MoveOn run television ads in critical Senate states?

I will never forget what it felt like to watch the United States launch astronauts into space, or the pride I felt when Neil Armstrong took that "one small step for a man." The promise and possibility for our future seemed endless.

I still believe in that possibility, and I want to see our government invest in NASA and the space program for generations to come.

Those critical programs that advance scientific knowledge cannot be replaced by billionaires running luxury private trips to space for those who can afford the tickets and no one else.

We must put a stop to the increasing wealth gap and unbridled greed by the few. It’s time to tax the rich. Will you help by chipping in $3 now, Juha?

Thanks for all you do.

–Robert Reich
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Virgin Galactic and Branson to fly today

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sikacz wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 4:15 pm
CDFingers wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:46 pm "Chip in..." Yeah. Tone deaf. Digital is free.

CDFingers
Yep to that as well. LoL.
Digital isn’t free the websites have to pay for the hosting and the hosting company has to pay for the hardware and the access to the network. The network has to pay for the major hub broadband connection and right on up the ladder.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Virgin Galactic and Branson to fly today

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TrueTexan wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 7:25 pm
sikacz wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 4:15 pm
CDFingers wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:46 pm "Chip in..." Yeah. Tone deaf. Digital is free.

CDFingers
Yep to that as well. LoL.
Digital isn’t free the websites have to pay for the hosting and the hosting company has to pay for the hardware and the access to the network. The network has to pay for the major hub broadband connection and right on up the ladder.
I do pay for my internet service, there is that. So technically nothing is free.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Virgin Galactic and Branson to fly today

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CDFingers wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:32 am Pretty low cost though. I pay my monthly and read /post a whole lot of stuff like that ones above. Prolly a penny a piece. Maybe less.

CDFingers
Since mine is my phone, I don’t really look at the cost of reading information. I need the phone for communication since we no longer have a landline. I suppose if I calculate the gasoline used to go vote plus misc costs, I could say it has a cost as well. Yes, not a large cost to me, but I don’t discount that it is an obstacle to some.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

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