Richard Branson Gets His Astronaut Wings Today.

[martin-w 3,276]

Watch live as the bearded daredevil becomes a spaceman and demonstrates the safety of the vehicle.

And beats Bezos into space which some would argue is a good thing to do.

 

 

[CYXR 257]

All billionaires should be lauched into space. The contentious issue is welcoming them back to Earth or not. There should be a 100 billion (USd) dollar re-entry fee applying to them; according to me. 

Edited July 11, 2021 by CYXR

[W2DR 1,863]

Or, better yet, make it a one-way trip.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

His wings, or his WINGS/HORNS, depending on how the flight goes!  LOL!

 

[jmdriskell 181]

"Up in the air, junior birdman, up in the air!"  This is like awarding a drivers license to a rear seat driver. 

[CYXR 257]

I am a great fan of space exploration. I was born in it's age. Sputnik,  Mercury, Apollo, the U-2s,  STS, the ISS all the way to the Moon again and Mars. Those programs were necessities. We needed to explore space 1)to defend ourselves and 2)to ensure a future..    

Branson ought to have faked it at 007 Studio at Pinewood Studios. That would have been a remarquable achievement. This, today, was more of what got us to Bingo. 

 

[Chock 17,769]

I must say it's a hugely impressive achievement to have built a craft capable of carrying the weight of Richard Branson's ego up to an altitude of 55 miles. However, it's somewhat contentious as to whether or not this makes him an astronaut when the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale defines the boundary of space as the Karman Line, which is actually 62 miles above the surface of the Earth, and for pretty much every altitude world record, the FAI is the organisation which regulates on it.

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

22 minutes ago, Chock said:

I must say it's a hugely impressive achievement to have built a craft capable of carrying the weight of Richard Branson's ego up to an altitude of 55 miles. However, it's somewhat contentious as to whether or not this makes him an astronaut when the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale defines the boundary of space as the Karman Line, which is actually 62 miles above the surface of the Earth, and for pretty much every altitude world record, the FAI is the organisation which regulates on it.

I always thought he was a robot, therefore heavier then the average man 🤣

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

I take it a lot of people here don’t like Branson. What’s the beef people have with him?

[HiFlyer 9,393]

8 minutes ago, cmpbellsjc said:

I take it a lot of people here don’t like Branson. What’s the beef people have with him?

I'm assuming it's a form of jealousy.

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

12 minutes ago, cmpbellsjc said:

I take it a lot of people here don’t like Branson. What’s the beef people have with him?

I don't, his contribution to Music recording industry, music festivals, airlines, cheap mobile plans have always been an influence on my life, I bought Martha and the Muffins when I was a kid and many other records since then  too, went to a Virgin Music Festival, took advantage of Virgin Mobile being half the price when it was launched, and flown my kid to Australia on Virgin Australia. If he makes it cheap for me to get into space I would sign up for that too 

[Chock 17,769]

39 minutes ago, cmpbellsjc said:

I take it a lot of people here don’t like Branson. What’s the beef people have with him?

I don't particularly like or dislike him from a personal standpoint, he's a bit of a geek but he's basically got an okay personality and seems fairly likeable in the social sense at least. However, I am somewhat critical of many of his business practices. For example, he is often touted as being some kind of pantheon of entrepreneurism when the truth is that his first business which got him going was based on illegally selling records, evading tax revenue due on them in order to undercut other high street shops. Since making a profit from a such activities is a criminal offence in the UK, this is hardly the business model of a great entrepreneur, more like a carpet bagger. The fact that he got away with it does not make it right.

There are many other things about him which equally are not what I'd call admirable, not least of which is the fact that despite having a net worth of 5.9 billion Dollars, he actually asked his Virgin Airline staff to take an eight week unpaid holiday as a result of the shutdown of aviation operations in the UK, when he could have quite easily covered this with the furlough scheme in the UK whereby he only needed to pay 20 percent of their wages if he wanted them to maintain their pay level, and even less if he wasn't concerned about parity, with the UK Government picking up the rest of the 80 percent tab. This is hardly a very philanthropic way to be with the people who make money for you every day during normal circumstances when you have so much money as a result of their efforts. Some UK politicians have called for his knighthood to be revoked because of his numerous questionable monetary practices. Probably won't happen, but it's an indication of what a dodgy geezer he is in business practice terms.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Chock

[CYXR 257]

4 minutes ago, Chock said:

I don't particularly like or dislike him from a personal standpoint, but I am somewhat critical of many of his business practices. For example, he is often touted as being some kind of pantheon of entrepreneurism when the truth is that his first business which got him going was based on illegally selling records, evading tax revenue due on them in order to undercut other high street shops. Since making a profit from a such activities is a criminal offence in the UK, this is hardly the business model of a great entrepreneur, more like a carpet bagger.

There are many other things about him which equally not what I'd call admirable, not least of which is the fact that despite having a net worth of 5.9 billion Dollars, he actually asked his Virgin Airline staff to take an eight week unpaid holiday as a result of the shutdown of aviation operations in the UK, when he could have quite easily covered this with the furlough scheme in the UK whereby he only needed to pay 20 percent of their wages, with the UK Government picking up the rest of the tab. This is hardly a very philanthropic way to be with the people who make money for you every day during normal circumstances. Some UK politicians have called for his knighthood to be revoked because of his numerous questionable monetary practices. Probably won't happen, but it's an indication of what a dodgy geezer he is.

I didn't know any of that. I'm not jealous. I'm outraged that the sky isn't the limit anymore. 

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

15 minutes ago, Chock said:

For example, he is often touted as being some kind of pantheon of entrepreneurism when the truth is that his first business which got him going was based on illegally selling records, evading tax revenue due on them in order to undercut other high street shops. Since making a profit from a such activities is a criminal offence in the UK, this is hardly the business model of a great entrepreneur, more like a carpet bagger. The fact that he got away with it does not make it right.

To be honest, anyone that had anything to do with the UK Recording Industry at that time was evading the excessive taxation, reason for artists like Bowie, Queen, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin etc setting up recording studios on Lake Montreux. For a while there the only ones making records in the UK where artists from the USA and Canada, anyone else from the UK got out.

[Fielder 3,771]

I feel sorry for the Flying Nun. She did not have the re-entry fee. 😞