07-21-2021, 02:44 PM
Grateful11 wrote:
The elderly lady, yes she was trained and I would consider her somewhat of a astronaut, the others absolutely not.
If I take a deep breath and go underwater for one minute does that make me a scuba diver, I don't think so but now maybe it should.
Not a scuba diver but It does make you a freediver
Grateful11 wrote: This whole thing with Bezos and Branson is just rich people bragging rights. At least Musk is planning on going somewhere besides being weightless for 1-2 minutes.
Branson will never get beyond what it is now, though it can be used for sending satellites into low earth orbit. His venture is an ego trip that will likely never be profitable.
Bezos New Shepherd is not going much further than what was saw yesterday. But he is working on New Glenn which is a multistage system for heavy lifting and lunar trips similar to SpaceX's Starship. His systems also are using liquid Hydrogen and Oxygen for fuel. The thought is potentially using lunar ice for fuel and use the moon as a jumping-off point. They are also working on landers. So Blue Origins has a viable business model similar to SpaceX but is not as far advanced.