The amount of money wasted on this flawed concept is tragic, when considering what better things could have been done with it to advance suborbital flight.
Are they still using hybrid propulsion? I haven’t seen much detail on what’s different about Delta, other than size.
If SpaceX is offering orbital rides for a few hundred thousand, I’m having trouble seeing how VG would compete with a suborbital system. They were way too late to market, and they’ve probably missed it. I would never have put a dime into this business, and I wouldn’t now.
Branson is a hobbyist
Bezos is a dilletent
Musk is the modern D.D. Harriman
err, dilettante
If I wwa VG, I’d buy the Rutherford engines from Rocket Labs. They’d need nine of them, but that’s how many the Electron uses, successfully. It’s the only reusable engine in production that has an excellent track record, and 50,000 pounds thrust would be plenty for the Delta vehicle, especially with its 311 seconds vacuum Isp. If they try to scale up the hybrid, they won’t fly in two years – or even six. And if I know Beck, he’d be delighted to get another revenue stream supplying Rocket Lab hardware to someone who doesn’t compete with any of his lines of business.
Interesting thought. Perhaps Beck could pursue it himself by buying VG’s assets at the liquidation sale. He already has some relevant experience in repurposing assets of other space companies that have gone on the rocks.