Comments on: Space tourism not so popular in Jacksonville

By: Personal Spaceflight » A Florida spaceport (not on the Cape) moves forward

Personal Spaceflight » A Florida spaceport (not on the Cape) moves forward — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:26:40 +0000

[…] The JAA plans to submit its spaceport license application to the FAA by June, according to the report, and hopes to get a positive response by the end of 2008. What isn’t stated is what spaceflight companies, if any, have expressed interest in flying out of Jacksonville (whose residents aren’t necessarily lining up to buy Virgin Galactic tickets). […]

By: AWFord

AWFord — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:44:23 +0000

I commend Joe Blow’s logic in the comment about the economics, but I think he missed a critical factor in the equation: expendable cash. You might find that many people willing to spend $200k for a trip to space. I know I would be, IF I had $200k sitting around. But they have to be will AND able to spend that much before you even begin to count them into any kind of economic feasibility model. I think that would drastically reduce the potential, though certainly not below the cost of development and operations.

By: Joe Blow

Joe Blow — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:24:12 +0000

Even if we take this data point seriously, it makes no real difference.

The Florida Theatre seats 1,918. Rounded up that’s 2,000. Divide the U.S. population of 300 million by 2,000 and that’s 150,000 interested U.S. customers. 150,000 times $200K per ticket equals $30 billion in revenue. We can only guesstimate SS2’s costs, but given SS1’s reported cost of $20-25 million, that kind of market would certainly pay for SS2’s development many, many times over.

Of course, probably only a fraction of the seats in the Florida Theatre were occupied for Branson’s talk, boosting these numbers considerably. And then there’s the international market. And Branson is probably willing to take a hit on this endeavour, anyway.

The key is to interest those individuals with enough spare wealth to afford the ticket. The pitch has to appeal to that market. That, and hopefully the individual clapping wasn’t one of Branson’s personal staff.

By: Bryan Price

Bryan Price — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:13:57 +0000

I didn’t even know he was in town last night. And I read the paper this morning.

Instead, I watched TOS on the screen last night.

By: Fred Simkin

Fred Simkin — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:19:38 +0000

Not the the product, not the price…it’s Jacksonville.

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:18:36 +0000

One suspects that the price is the problem, not the product.