Hasn’t Virgin Galactic been offering this for years? If they’d dropped the price, it would be news, but I don’t know why people have been bothering to link to this story.
11 thoughts on “Why Is This News?”
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Hasn’t Virgin Galactic been offering this for years? If they’d dropped the price, it would be news, but I don’t know why people have been bothering to link to this story.
Comments are closed.
I wondered the same thing when I saw it linked earlier today.
Only newsworthy thing I can think of is the fact there are now three South-Florida agents that are selling these packages now, instead of having to go directly to VG?
The fact that they mention that three people have signed up through these agencies so far, but over 100 have signed up directly through VG speaks to that, I’d imagine.
You have to keep up the public’s interest somehow given all the delays VG has had in starting service.
Rand, the news hook is in the second paragraph — three Florida travel agencies have signed onboard to sell tickets. That makes it local news.
Just like the top story on the website is that the local football team didn’t fire its coach. That doesn’t mean that this is the first team a football team didn’t fire its coach. It’s just the first time their team didn’t fire its coach. Or something. (Okay, I don’t understand football. 🙂
My point is that non-local people (like Instapundit) have been linking it as though it’s a big deal.
Well, clearly some people think that commercial availability through travel agencies is big news.
But that wasn’t the headline. And it’s not really new either.
I sure hope Glenn and others continue to link to such items. Despite all the articles about VG and space tourism over the years, outside of the space community I still find it surprisingly common to talk to otherwise educated people who are unaware of, or only have a vague awareness of, what’s happening with commercial spaceflight.
People live within a constant flood of information these days and have learned to tune out most of it except for the particular niche areas they are especially interested in. It will take a combination of repetition and some highly visible events, e.g. the first VG flights to space, to get a broad swath of the public informed about personal spaceflight.
Any bets on when the first billboards will go up?
Despite all the articles about VG and space tourism over the years, outside of the space community I still find it surprisingly common to talk to otherwise educated people who are unaware of, or only have a vague awareness of, what’s happening with commercial spaceflight.
I agree. I linked Rand’s “Year in Review” article at another (non-space related) blog, and added, “There is a lot going on that is under the radar of the MSM and the average person.”
I hadn’t paid much attention to the numbers. Is it odd that a poor person like myself would find it so encouraging that over a hundred people are willing to pay so much for a short sub orbital flight?
Over the holidays I found that relatives of mine who are interested in technology and work in technology did not know *any* of this was going on.