3 Burst results for "Colin Bennett"
Bloomberg Radio New York
"colin bennett" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Bring up Beth Moses, our chief astronaut instructor at Virgin Galactic in the cabin, lead and test director for this flight. Beth, you did it oversaw the whole thing. Great job. Colin Bennett, our lead flight operations engineer, Colin was evaluating all the equipment procedures and experienced I think doing some tumbles. Colin Mhm. Sorry to vandalize our VP of government affairs and research operations. Trisha evaluated the researcher experience. Biggest smile. Biggest smile in space. Amazing. And, of course, Virgin Galactic's founder. Sir Richard Branson, the master of customer experience who tested the private astronaut journey and he was observations and feedback will be used to enhance what we do for all future astronauts going forward. Richard. Congratulations. And with that Richard. We'll let you guys take it. Thank you. Thanks, Michael. Thanks everybody once again. Thank thank you. The whole team. Um Don't know what's going to come out of my mouth because I feel I'm still in space. So and some of you say normally in space, so, um, but I'll do my best. First of all, it's absolutely fantastic to see all you kids here. I wish we could have had thousands of kids here. Um.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"colin bennett" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Why they're able to land it in such a specific spot. Say, versus the capsule that Jeff Bezos will go in which relies on a parachute in his subject to wind. Of course, you just stare. And land on the runway, but we're not quite there yet. This year, there is time to go. I would say it's still very energetic, intense here, guys, and we can hear the chairs behind. You were about six minutes into the separation. The Astronauts. I guess we can call them astronauts. Now. Commercial astronauts are back in their seats, so weightlessness has been experienced and it's over and it's time to come back down. The feathering process has happened. There They are. All buckled up. You look good and the unity is now officially a glider heading back down to earth and talk to us about what's happening. Now what the feeling is inside, Do you experience? Um, a different sort of stomach churning on your way back to Earth? Oh, look, there's Richard Branson grabbing someone's foot. I think that's Colin Bennett. He was shaking his foot. Kind of like a handshake or a high five. But in space, yeah, out of affection rather than out of terror, But I would say, you know, every space launch has risk even those that don't carry humans payload. That's why the FAA regulates this so closely. That's why the May 22nd test was so key because as soon as they landed They had to hand over that big trench of data to the FAA, and that's what lead to them getting the license approval. That's what made today possible. I did manage to chat to a few version galactic people. Of course, they were nervous. Of course, there is an element of risk. As cold, Glaser said, as some of our previous guest said, the whole point of Richard Branson going up there. Yes, of case. He has a passionate space, but apparently it's about leading the way, you know. And if there's one way to put not just your money where your mouth is, but yourself where you are, and your money is or however, I want to explain it. Then you go up into space on your own tech. Want to get back to Philip McAllister, director of commercial spaceflight division at NASA, Ed Love those sit tight because we are going to be coming back to you often. And and in just a few minutes. Um Philip, I'm wondering about the relationship that you think is appropriate between private enterprise right now in the U. S government and and how this moment is different. Than the history of space exploration when it comes to government control of it. There's no 11 specific way that the government and the private sector can interact. Um, for a number of years, We've been in a public private partnership with SpaceX and Boeing for orbital, human space transportation, and that has worked out very well where we share the risks, and we share finances and technical expertise. In this instance for both blue words and Virgin Galactic. The private sector did this entirely on their own. They finance these systems. They developed them. They control the design and made all the decisions. And from NASA's perspective,.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"colin bennett" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Space Capital managing partner, Eduardo that was joining us just now, on the ground of truth or consequences. New Mexico from Spaceport America Sit tight at because we're gonna be coming back to you. In just a few minutes. Um, Chad. What is the role that government plays in spaceflight? Specifically U. S spaceflight moving forward? Because if we think back to the traditional role this was this was something that was taken on by NASA from governments. Just a handful of them that have been to space, but is that era over This is a huge benefit. All these commercial activities are huge benefit for NASA. We have been operating in space for decades. But this is really only been a category for investors over the last 10 years. No SpaceX that really broke through the deadlock that the defense contractors had on this market, which was very limited market. I mean, on the one hand, you had a handful of defense contractors, and on the other hand, you had the government. That was the whole market. And so, um, it the pricing was all over the place. The costs were extremely high. Everything that was built was built for a very sophisticated government customer. And so this really limited our capability and and and and the innovation that we saw in in in the category, But given that investors have invested in these companies, they want to see some sort of return. Does that limit the bets that these companies can take in a way that the government Wouldn't have to hold back if it wanted to make big, bold bets. I'm thinking Mars here. No. So the the government is benefiting from these new capabilities that are coming online. I mean, you have the defense contractors were getting I'm very comfortable right and innovation wasn't happening at a pace that we're seeing today. What's happened over the last 10 years is the comparison is night and day and the government gets to benefit from that, because no longer are they do. They need to be the benefactor that is funding the development of these systems that are going to take us to low Earth orbit. Um, Now those those operations which are routine, and we've done plenty of times before can be handed over to private companies. They're going out and raising capital venture capital dollars. And building these systems that NASA can then just be a customer of one customer of many customers in a thriving marketplace. This is is driving innovation and bringing costs down. That there's been a lot of back and forth about Branson versus Bezos. And like the competition that's happening here. This is definitely no doubt about it. This is a competition. I mean, going 20 years of effort going, you know, 11 days apart from each other, like this is a competition, but its competition. We are witnessing it. It's driving progress, and we're witnessing it right now. And so the government benefits NASA benefits and we benefit all of us get benefit from this because what's happening now? I mean the pace of innovation that's happening at some of these companies. Particularly with SpaceX and Starship Starship is going to fundamentally change the way that we operate and interact with space. The two things that have defined space to this point have been It's hard to get to and it's expensive. It was starship. Those things go away. You can carry a huge amount of capacity to, um to orbit and beyond. It can re fuel and it can go to the moon and it can go to Mars. And it can land us there. And I think starships going to be the vehicle that takes us to the moon Takes NASA to the moon. In the 2024 type timeframe, and you have to think about you know all everything else that that comes with that not just going to these destinations, but all the other capabilities that this brings online. Chad. We're just getting word from Virgin Galactic that we're about nine minutes away now from separation when the V s s unity will drop from Eve and rocket up into space. Speaking of the competition, the debate here is that Karman line 62 miles above sea level. That's where Jeff Bezos will be flying on July 20th Richard Branson this flight today we'll be going somewhere above 50 miles above sea level. The last test flight, I believe, went 54 to 56 miles above the Earth's surface. We don't know just exactly how far but will be Above 50 and below 62. So that is where the debate comes in NASA and the U. S military defined space as 50 miles above sea level, And that's how Virgin Galactic likes to define it as well. I want to know a little bit more about this space ecosystem that you've been investing in. If this flight today is successful if Blue origin slight on July 20th is successful. What does that mean for the ecosystem of companies that you've been working with that are depending on progress here that are depending on these milestones being hit to get to the moon to get to Mars and beyond. I mean, so this is all relatively new from an investor perspective category for investors to participate in. It's really over the last 10 years and really over the last five years. And There's been a massive amount of innovation and activity and investor interest in participation. So we've got some preliminary numbers for Q two in and it looks like there was $10 billion invested in Q two in the space economy. And, um almost half of that went to infrastructure companies, the launch vehicles and satellite hardware that is generating data and generating these types of experiences. And we're really, you know, as a seed stage investor in this category. What we're really interested in is the types of applications that are going to be going to be built on top of this infrastructure, and that's really where a lot of the value for investors comes from. So We're watching that very closely. And just to give you a sense, you know, 10 years ago, there was no gone from literally, you know, basically zero investment into this category. Private investment into into private commercial space companies. Now there's been $200 billion invested into over 1500 companies over the last 10 years, so we're really on an exponential curve here. Again. There's been You know, people are really starting to pay attention now because it's all sort of coming to fruition. But this is the result of you know 5 10 20 years of effort that's really all coming together. At the same time, and a lot of that's being driven by more participation. More competition, which drives innovation and dress progress. The spacecraft now hitting 45,000 Ft. We're hearing about five minutes away from launch, currently traveling 345 miles an hour and again when that rocket drops, it's going to accelerate to Mach three or three times. The speed of sound in a matter of eight seconds. You've been looking at video of all the folks on board a first time for Richard Branson going into space first time for sorry she ban law, who's running a research project on the flight as well as Colin Bennett. Lead operations Engineer. Also on board is Beth Moses, who's running the astronaut experience, making sure everything goes well for these folks and two pilots who I understand our career pilots NASA This sort of write stuff kind of guys. Um Chad, talk to us about the demand. How many people do you think really want this opportunity? Certainly it depends on cost. Let's hope it comes below $250,000 for a ticket. But what do you imagine? You know, Real world. Folks, um, will actually want to pay and how many of them will actually want to take this chance. Take this risk. As you mentioned. I mean, they've announced 700 people that have paid this price. And really, interestingly, um, they have held on throughout this entire period. Right? I mean, they've some of these people have put down deposits many years ago, and the majority of them are hanging on. Even through all the ups and downs throughout the test program, So these people really want to go and you know, we'll have to wait until you hear what his announcement is. Maybe they've got some more numbers there. We have to wait and see. I am really interested to hear and we might not. I think blue origin is probably going to keep this, um to themselves, but they have all of the data that came from their pricing auction. That's going to inform what they charge per seat and I think that that was a really interesting market survey. If we can get a look at that that will tell us a lot about how many people and what they're willing to pay..