Virgin Galactic opens commercial spaceport

[triangle1990]

@Daemonicfoxx tell em. majority of people commenting are just bitter and broke

[Drednots]

Branson only has to invest 1 million dollars a year for 5 years EVEN if it fails. The local county approved 40 million of tax payer dollars in 08' Now the estimates are 200 million. Pretty good return on your investment if your a billionaire.... Little risk and let tax payers float the bill. Don't go to a bank. Just let tax payers pay for it and see what happens.  What fucking bullshit. As if states and counties are not fucked up enough...no wonder why this fucker is always smiling....

[KRYTEN451]

This, one of the few really exciting investments for the future. I'm happy for Branson, Richardson and all of us on this milestone.

[absformula]

awesome

[ccricers]

SpaceX > Virgin Galactic.

They are doing LEO flights and soon GEO and possibly the Moon.

It's entirely privately funded and not from taxpayers.

They made contracts with NASA and several companies, so they're pushing for space exploration and not just entertainment.

[McBlemmen]

@ccricers yup , and this si for entertainment , 2 diffrent things.

Now get out

[ccricers]

@McBlemmen Kinda surprised you didn't respond to the broader attacks at Virgin Galactic. See RalphMarx below

[RalphMarx]

209 Million of Tax payer money ..... THAT IS BETTER ON SPENDING BILLIONS ON A STUPID AIRPORT.

JEEZ this is amazing they actually stick to budget!!! , wow , I have to give credit to finance manager on this one , must have been one cold headed hard ass.

[aglorincz]

wait, seriously? we paid for this crap? so rich people can fly in space?

[RalphMarx]

@aglorincz no , technically , it counts for like 50 to 25 cents from your taxes , do the math. and multiply lets say the population NY , D.C and New Jersey states and factor it on a basis of months

you guys aint spending much compared to lets say Star Wars or the nuclear program

[colourmegone]

And all paid for by federal tax dollars. Must be exciting to be a capitalist entrepreneur, taking enormous risks with other people's money. Who wants to bet some of their own personal wealth that thing goes belly up in a couple of years at most?

[kurtilein3]

well, i guess its still better than giving the money to the military.

But without that taxpayer financed spaceport, virgin galactic would just operate with a small hangar and a runway out of their own pockets, and it would work just as well.

[RayKalmNiam]

I thought that country was in trillion of dollars of debt, they should feed and help their people instead of spending more on useless junk.

[ccricers]

@RayKalmNiam That's a false dilemma you're setting up. We can easily do both. There are entrepreneurs like Branson, but with interests in feeding people and helping the poor.

[RayKalmNiam]

@ccricers I'm not setting up any false dilemma. You can't easily do both, you are broke and spend trillions on "dictator" aid and defense.

[R3dp055um]

Wait, wait, the taxpayer pays for the airport, what does the taxpayer get in return?

The joy of knowing that we enabled a billionaire to get even richer?

[ShaktipatSeer2]

Yeah.. tax payer financed.. 200k a ride.. what a joke.. every day the news becomes more and more like 'The Onion'

[eliasgerris]

To bad that the people who actually paid for this buidling will probably never be able to enjoy one of those 200.000 USD flights :/ What a ripoff

[angelialvares]

Hope he sends all the one percent on a space trip from which they will never come back!

[ralphinator2]

@JesusFingeredBabies The money doesn't disappear. It circulates. Lots of good jobs are created.

[HalfFullYeah]

@ralphinator2

Where does it circulate?

Where are those «good» jobs?

[TheAmusingHeckler]

Wow so how is this going to benefit anyone on the planet besides letting privileged geeks look like they got a set(when in reality these geeks don't even wipe their own asses)

[MyDormantSoul]

this is a good thing imo

[WinkyMaeve]

@MyDormantSoul yes, 200 million dollars of tax payers money so rich people can fly in space.

you are a clown kid.

[MyDormantSoul]

@WinkyMaeve as a opposed to billions of taxpayers money being spent if it were publicly owned....

[theylive1984rm]

Mojave CA has had a space port for more than 10 years so how is this the first one

[UsernameofBoang]

Uhh...tourism figures from the 80s & 90s? Really? It's late 2011, post 2008 market crash. There are 60,000+ (documented figures) unemployed in the state right now, thousands gone homeless from the housing bubble. The state is broke right now and is borrowing money from the future.

[x0acake]

@UsernameofBoang I don't think you're even trying to understand his comments. The figures are to denote potential growth in tourism revenue. The last figure ($6 billion) was the most recent. I see this spaceport as doing more good than bad. It'll increase revenue for the state and as previously mentioned, it's human progress. Money spent on this thing will surely be made up for.

[UNIVERSITYHI]

@x0acake They make the same claim about sports arenas and a lot of studies have shown that there is no net benefit to the tax payers. I will state that some think that the "intangibles" that come with having a pro sports team in your city pay off long term. Things like being recognized as being a big city and the PR that comes with having a sports team being among the intangibles.

[vipnon1965]

Tax payer financed, Not Richard Branson's own money.

[youngbuck189]

@vipnon1965 of course, the rich don't get rich on their own. they use government money every time. yet then they use their money to finance propoganda about free market and individualism. biggest hypocrites on the earth.

[ccricers]

@vipnon1965 That's why SpaceX is better :D

[onthemellowhype]

that is so awesome



[NoNORADon911]

BcmAVMHRVq=Government cock sucker, slurp slurp slurp. Troll channel.

[loqutor]

Why pay $200,000 when I can just join the Air Force and become an astronaut for free?

[elfguy]

@loqutor because you have the money and want to spend a week on this, not take your entire life?

[HDaviator]

@loqutor

You don't join the Air Force to become an astronaut, you join NASA. Not every astronaut is from the air force, but you do need to be an engineer or scientist. 

[loqutor]

@HDaviator Except that NASA is no longer sending up astronauts.

[HDaviator]

@loqutor

You need to read more on the subject. NASA is using the Russians to send their astronauts to the ISS. The organization is currently developing vehicles that will send people to mars, frankly, I think it is a good thing that they stopped the space shuttle program. Too much money was being spent.

[loqutor]

@HDaviator Really? I did not know that. I'll have to look into it later on.

[sonnydey]

Spaceport sound a lot cooler then "feed the hungry". Anyway if they wanted to "feed the hungry", then Spaceport is the way to go since the profits could go to "feed the hungry".

This is a win win deal.

[evil001987]

where will the profits of this go? Will it go to Virgin Galactic or will it go to the governemnt... since the taxpayers paid for it this would only make sense if the taxpayers could get it back that way.

[NoNORADon911]

@evil001987 Wishful thinking. Get used to bending over or join the protest against this

waste of TAX money when we are in a depression.

[evil001987]

@NoNORADon911 I'm glad it is not my tax payers... But this could be a good thing, since it will mean continued research among space flight. Only problems is that taxpayers pay for it and a company earns money out from it. Imagine if the government would earn money from it and could use this profit for building infrastructure for the people. If it did it could be a good thing.

[UsernameofBoang]

OUTRAGEOUS! What a huge waste of taxpayers' money! $200,000 a ticket?! All that money for just a frigging 2 hour ride out of the earth?! Only the super rich elites can afford to throw away money that could be used to pay off tuition or buy a house. How shameless of them to use taxpayers' money! Most taxpayers can barely get by with their paychecks. What use is this spaceport to them?!

[BcmAVMHRVq]

@UsernameofBoang Ugh, you're just about as close-minded as bongojim420. It's a start, get the fuck over it. It's a drop in a bucket compared to all the other billion-dollar quantities spent on everything else. Plus these prices are going to go down, just like the price of plane tickets and cars, computers, etc went down after their initial exposure.

[UsernameofBoang]

@BcmAVMHRVq That $209,000,000 "drop in the bucket" can be used to build several hospitals, schools, or feed the hungry instead, which we desperately need more than spaceport.

[hayden50]

@UsernameofBoang "feed the hungry" ?? nope, i prefer a spaceport.... lol @ your occupation, "freeloader"...

[UsernameofBoang]

@hayden50 I'm a medic. I know for certain that during tough economic times we need those taxpayer money more to save people's lives than pay for millionaires'/billionaires' toys.

[BcmAVMHRVq]

@UsernameofBoang You're already pouring billions of dollars to build hospitals, schools and feeding the hungry. Get the fuck over it you close-minded fuck. This is a step forward into the future and you're neglecting it. As I said, these prices are going to go down and these trips will hopefully become normal like that of planes.

[UsernameofBoang]

@BcmAVMHRVq As I said, I want my money to go to hospitals, schools, and food for people who can't afford it. You obviously haven't seen deplorable hospitals and schools and homeless folks in New Mexico. If a spaceport for people who can afford to pay for it right now is such a good idea then they should pay for it with their own money and not use the taxpayers'.

[BcmAVMHRVq]

@UsernameofBoang New Mexico wasn't going to funnel all of that money into programs for hospitals, schools and homeless people anyway. States have a little something called a budget. The state is still pouring billions of dollars into schools and hospitals. Any extra decisions are extra expenditures. Why do you refuse to understand? This is the world's first commercial spaceport, it's an indispensable step into the future. It's an investment for mankind, like hospitals and schools. Open your mind

[UsernameofBoang]

@BcmAVMHRVq With all the spending cuts and budget deficit (projected @ -$160,000,000 this fiscal year) that the state is going through? "pouring billions of dollars into schools and hospitals"? Are you kidding me? They're slashing budgets for hospitals and schools. The taxpayer money spent on that spaceport could've been used to balance the state's budget with money to spare. We can't afford to pay for a spaceport right now.

[BcmAVMHRVq]

@UsernameofBoang Give me a fucking break. You would be amazed at how far the private service economy in New Mexico has gotten. It's the home of Albuquerque, which is growing to be one of the biggest homes for retirees, for both government workers and veterans. This spaceport will contribute to the billions of dollars the state earns in from tourism, which more than doubled from 1980 to 1989 and then doubled again from 1989 to 1994. That's gone to over 6 billion and this is going to push it.

[BcmAVMHRVq]

@UsernameofBoang And like I said before, tough luck. You're not going to ever get to decide what your government spends your tax money on because public opinion on certain issues differs greatly. Even if you didn't want this spaceport to be built with your taxpayer money, millions of others did.

[UsernameofBoang]

@BcmAVMHRVq HA! Millions of others might have wanted this spaceports but most of them are not New Mexicans. Tough luck indeed. Just one reason for the rise of the Occupy movement. We're trying to change that.

[breaks0]

@UsernameofBoang Totally. And you can see our british friends aren't happy about it either. This is like 2001 when they had commercial flights to the moon. Probably not so far off. Only the very rich can afford this, that's sort've the idea.

[FCKEVRY1]

The cost should be of no consequence. Space exploration AND a spaceport are good things. Wait a second! That's the Virgin dude. He could have footed that bill with one fistfull of cash. Fuck this! Well, it's not like any of us were going to hitch a ride with NASA.

[JoelBitarProductions]

So when the world is destroyed by the rich people, they will then get to escape because they are rich? That's so messed up.

[slave880]

that is what they call "stimulate package" for you my friends

[vipwhips]

Why do the tax payers have to pay for this if they will never afford to go into space ?

[floydspiritz]

i came here to see the first commercial aired

[zigsauer]

ELECTROGRAVITICS

[TimothyStuartRiches]

Amazing that an interesting story dropped a dollar figure and almost everyone freaks out. (psst! The tickets are $200 grand each and are taxed)

[KelbAlrai1990]

Wow you know we could've used that money to help fund for social programs or something, why the hell is the govt only being a bitch to the rich now?

[1stAmendmentChannel]

$200,000...Bummer, another thing an average Joe like me will never get to do unless Mr. Branson has a lottery to win a free ride...:)

[freesk8]

Taxpayer-funded? NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Don't we have enough of that with NASA?

I'm a fan of the free market, but corporate welfare to make a "spaceport" is not free market. This should be PRIVATELY FUNDED!!!

The govt is bankrupt!!!! AAARRRGGHHHH!!!! :(

[bongojim420]

Wait did they say 209 fucking MILLION TAX PAYER DOLLARS!?!?

When the fuck did we the people agree to this shit!?

[BcmAVMHRVq]

@bongojim420 Fuck off and get an open mind. I'd rather you spend 209 million dollars on space than billions in war.

[ldlemos]

@BcmAVMHRVq right on dude.



[bongojim420]

@BcmAVMHRVq Fuck off? Get a open mind!? Hey fuck you! You want a open mind, visit my channel.

THAT'S TAX MONEY ASSHOLE! No one asked me if I wanted a fucking 209 MILLION DOLLAR SPACEPORT!

Why the fuck would that money HAVE TO go to the military!? Why not education, food, shelter, or fix our crumbling infrastructure like bridges & roads. Where do you people come from!?

[spikesmth]

@bongojim420 Ever consider that a "spaceport" might be a good thing to have?

[SeminarioMAE]

@bongojim420 Dumb fuck stoner. Space research is critical for mankind's long term survival.

[BcmAVMHRVq]

@bongojim420 Yeah, fuck off. You're about as close minded as anyone could even get. It could go towards space exploration, I gave two options. You're never going to get control over what your government spends your taxes on because public opinion differs greatly on different issues. Even if you didn't want this spaceport I'm sure millions of others did.

[NoNORADon911]

@BcmAVMHRVq You're already in space. You are part of the problem.

This is part of what people are protesting against. You are obviously a uneducated dumb twat.

Next comet that comes by don't forget your nike shoes & koolaid :D

[BcmAVMHRVq]

@NoNORADon911 Yeah, can't say I didn't expect that. Your first response was with a strawman and two arguments with severely faulty reasoning. The next two are baseless associations (which I guess you brought in because it would be impossible for you to justify your initial stupidity). Can't blame you for avoiding the contestion of their corresponding responses. Won't see anything serious from a close-minded fucktard.

[NoNORADon911]

@BcmAVMHRVq= FOX news viewer. lol

[x0acake]

Hopefully it'll stay open.

[charbroiledmonk1033]

first!.... oh well then, fuck you

[blitzucan]

 First :D