Sour grapes.

My thought exactly ttbn

This bloke stuffed his snout deep in the tax payer funded trough, & has done quite well out of it.

Branson & his mates bothered to find out what the average citizen wanted, supplied it, & made a huge fortune doing it.

Binoy's problem is that he wasn't smart enough to do the same.

O.K. big deal! But likely to pale into insignificance in a few short years with the development of a new electronic antigravity hyperdrive. That'll open up a highway to the stars and at speeds that may be just a tad under light speed?

How you may ask? By understanding that magnetic force is far stronger than gravity and may be harnessed to overcome it without all the lift-off speeds currently required to overcome gravity. And so as it goes up, so also shall it go down to land as lightly as thistledown!

Moreover, this new drive will operate 24/7 as it hurtles toward a destination, then at some predetermined point, reverses thrust to de-accelerate all while maintaining gravity normal inside a hull at least as large as the world's largest ship.

I expect such a vessel will be proceeded by a very large drone equipped with various sensors and weapons capable of destroying any unforeseen obstacle, so as to clear a pathway to the predetermined destination. These may be one-way exploration expeditions with drones sent back with any and all relevant info.

Furthermore, all while a hundred or more such vessels are launched to explore for new homes among the stars? And even at the speeds envisaged, need twenty or so years to reach the nearest star system, then twenty more to reach the next?

All while two or three hundred years pass on earth? And a warp drive is perfected to open up much much more and begin the next phase of humankind's expansion? And toward those destinations, the explorers have found as uninhabited suitable goldilocks targets for terraforming!?
Alan B.

Footnote. Such a drive could even move small nearby planets and asteroids etc to create oceans and supply minerals for required terraformation!

I expect such vessels shall carry deep-frozen seed banks and fetuses. Along with the test tube wombs and humanoid robot carers to turn them into very civilised and caring, decent, educated, erudite, knowledgeable humans? And as they grow other robots will plant/grow the seeds in suitable sites?

And create small expandable sites where humankind can survive and prosper!

Currently, the time scales envisaged wouldn't allow anything else than the above?

This is where the joy riding Sir Richard and co ought to be directing their considerable wealth!
Alan B.

I just wish I had the money to go for the ride
and see earth from outer space. How
could I possibly envy someone who
can? (Well, maybe just a little).
I remember the first time I went for a hot air balloon
ride - it was exhilarating. Getting out of your comfort zone
does wonders. Climbing a mountain may be hard - but oh the view
once you get to the top.

With global warming our most urgent problem, why are we giving egotistical billionaires carte blanche permission to escalate the world's carbon emissions purely in order to satisfy their drive for one-upmanship?

Global warming is not our most most urgent problem: it is Communist China, which has just threatened to 'nuke' Japan if it interferes in China's plans for Taiwan.

"Egotistical" billionaires do not need our permission to spend their own money how they wish. Whatever we think of them and what they do, it is none of our business; it is particularly not the business of Leftist whiners who have achieved nothing for anybody, including themselves.

I had to contend with a journey into the heavens in a smallish aeroplane which I had built myself and the thrill of that was for me just as great as Mr Branson had in his multi million dollar craft.

David

I'm not really in favour of frivolous activities that burn holes into the Ozone layer.
There are already too many rockets going up willy nilly !
I would however, be supportive of a scheme that sends Lefties into Space for a round the Universe journey !

Poor Bronwyn, I wonder if she will ever realise the global warming is a simple scam to keep the not very bright worried & under control.

Alan if you have a dream, it is up to you to realise it. Branson has earned the right to spend his own money on perusing his dream, not as you direct.

It's not just his own money Branson is spending. Some of it is ours.

Virgin Airlines pays virtually no tax in Australia yet put their hand out for Jobkeeper payments and other ongoing taxpayer subsidies.

Living in a tax haven, he personally pays no income tax.

Living in a tax haven, he personally pays no income tax.
rache,
He should have to pay Tax but if it means for thousands of his employees to lose their jobs then better this way for time being !

Binoy's Too Kind To Branson

Even before the October 31, 2014, breakup in flight fatal disaster for Branson's space flights for fun (see Binoy's third para).

On July 26, 2007 an explosion at an [ultimately Branson] "Scaled Composites rocket [ground] test stand at Mojave Airport in California...killed three people and injured three others."

See: http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/3854?id=3854 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaled_Composites#Accidents_and_incidents

Pete
http://gentleseas.blogspot.com/