Branson's wallet snaps shut for Virgin Galactic Sir Richard Branson is leaving his space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, to stand or fall on its own two feet after declaring that his business empire will not be tipping any more cash into the project. Branson told the Financial Times: "We don't have the deepest pockets after COVID, and Virgin Galactic has got $1 billion, …
The business plan was simple and followed the same old and predictable Beardie routine. Do a few PR stunts. Get the all too gullible media to hype the latest scam. Sell out to some gullible mug(s) before the shit hits the fan. Make off with all the loot to his tax haven in the Caribbean. Rinse and repeat ad finitum.
Wildly optimistic budgets and timelines for aerospace projects. (Carrier aircraft and a space plane.)
Getting New Mexico tax payers to build and maintain a spaceport.
Not accounting for how quickly rocket engine vibration cracked the composite materials available at the time.
Expecting a rapid cadence incompatible with the maintenance requirements of a hybrid rocket.
I am sure with their hard earned experience and large cash reserves they will make a better vehicle this time. I do not see how even an excellent vehicle could pay back much of that cash given the competition that will be ready by the time they are.
Branson told the Financial Times: "We don't have the deepest pockets"
What's this "we" shit? Why can't Beardie simply tell the truth, ie him and his companies aren't putting any more money in?
Beardie is always using the pronoun we to refer to himself to give the impression it was someone else (and not) him who has quit or failed. "We've taken the stellar success of Vigin Music/Cola/Brides/Trains/Media/etc as far as we can, so now we're bailing out".
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Billionaires like to perpetuate the myth that they are paying for these things themselves when it is really investors doing the heavy lifting. SpaceX isn't funded by Musk but billions and billions from investors. Throw in a small fraction of the money for a large fraction of the ownership. It is a trickier dance for publicly traded companies as it is easier for investors to pull the rug out from beneath you.
"Beardie is always using the pronoun we to refer to himself to give the impression it was someone else (and not) him who has quit or failed. "We've taken the stellar success of Vigin Music/Cola/Brides/Trains/Media/etc as far as we can, so now we're bailing out"."
The art of getting rich and staying rich is to *know* when to bail out *before* the losses hit !!!
Branson is no different to any other rich serial investor and the whole financial world works on the same basis .... stay while the *profits* are made and bail before the *losses* hit !!!
The trading of Stocks/Shares/Financial instruments of all shapes & sizes is based on exactly the same priniciple ..... and there are plenty of 'Mug punters' who think they are 'wise' to off-load the goods on before you make a loss !!!
:)
Surely the answer is just to put the prices up. If you're paying 450k for a ticket, surely another 100k isn't going to trouble you. Otherwise why are you paying to go into space in the first place? People who have that kind of money tend to have more of it lying around. They then have a choice of whether to go or not, as no doubt there will be plenty of other rich people who will take their place.
"Surely the answer is just to put the prices up."
Many of the early passengers have been booked for years and have paid at least some or all of the price up front. You can't change the prices for them. And IIRC, there's quite a list of those people to get through before actual current revenue starts properly.
Flying to space for a fun ride isn't something that's profitable.
They need to figure out how they can actually use this for something meaningful. So far this has been the equivalent of barnstorming flights of the very early aviation and the interest won't last long, especially when Space Karen offers actual flights to space station or the orbit.
The beardie and his company need to find their niche first.
I think we should commend Branson for investing in space tourism. And the company has shown that it's feasible to take private individuals into space (although not above the Karman line) and that a space tourism sector could potentially evolve.
However, having said that, huge investment is needed and the returns are too meager to build a business on. I therefore believe most space tourism companies will close their doors in the coming years. Only orbital tourism for the ultra-wealthy will continue to flourish.
Give Bransom some credit for getting this venture off the ground. He has no obligation to fund this business indefinitely.
There's no ticket price for going to orbit yet, and once there is, it will be at least 100x as expensive. There's a significant slice of population who can afford a $500k joyride, but not a $50M one.
I'm not part of either slice, and even though Branson says that he doesn't have the deepest pockets anymore, I'd still be happy to trade him for mine.
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