Have $1.6 Billion just lying around?

[Knotical]

If you do you can take a trip to the moon!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...CE_MOON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A team of former NASA executives is launching a private venture to send people to the moon.

The newly formed business is looking for countries willing to pay $1.5 billion for a two-person trip to the moon, either for research or national prestige.

NASA's last trip to the moon was 40 years ago.

The Golden Spike Company said Wednesday that it's aiming for a first launch before the end of the decade.

The company president is former NASA associate administrator Alan Stern. Its board chairman is Apollo era flight director Gerry Griffin, who once headed the Johnson Space Center.

Stern says the company will buy existing rockets and capsules, only needing to develop new spacesuits and a lunar lander.

 

[Aardverk]

Have $1.6 Billion just lying around?

If you do you can take a trip to the moon!

How much for a return ticket?

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Existing rockets and capsules? That would be the surplus Saturn Vs and the last two Apollo capsules built but never used when Congress defunded Apollo missions 18 and 19. Those things are almost 40 years old! That's kinda like depending on a 1972 Pinto to get you from New York to LA in under three days. No thanks ... even if I had the money.

Let's build new equipment and do it right.

 

[Knotical]

Hey, they didn't say it was a GOOD plan, just that they had a plan.

I believe they will be getting Macgyver and the A-Team to do some of the modifications.

 

[Nick]

I think for a couple of hundred thousand you can do a few orbits around the earth. That's a little more in reach, lol. If i had the money, I'd definately do both.

 

[Spring Waters]

Ah, the things money can buy.

Richard Branson the owner of the Virgin line, is in the process of creating airplane type vehicles that will allow people to go into space and orbit earth. And at a far more reasonable sum than 1.6 billion. More in the , richer in dollars than sense category of millions.

Either way, it would be a great Christmas or birthday present, but even if I was Oprah rich I doubt I'd spend that kind of cash. Especially given the G-forces are a real challenge to bear, which is why astronauts wear diapers at lift-off. And the older one is the worse it is on the whole body.
No, if I had 1.6 billion to burn I'd buy a property on the best spot on earth and build an observatory. Then I could visit space anytime I liked without that added thrill of feeling like my neck bone is being ripped from my body at launch. :shocked!

 

[Nick]

Ahh yes, I'm looking forward to Branson's orbit plane.