Canadian Arrow: The first Spaceline?

I fully belive that Burt Rutan/Scaled Composites will win the X-Prize and deserves to, with his record. Nevertheless, the company that as far as I can tell has the brightest future is Canadian Arrow.

I've looked around their sites and am now convinced that they have a semi-reliable launch vehicle (that could be refined constantly) that will be ready within the next six months. In addition to that, they have the astronauts and soon may have the infrastructure to launch a serious business. Already you can buy an $8,000 seat on their rocket, a bargain compared to a similarly priced MiG-29 ride, and they could be a serious contender in the x-treme tourism market.

More cynically, this could also just mean that they're bluffing, want publicity, or are drastically low on funding and need this boost. I sincerly hope that it is the former, and that I might be able to ride that rocket soon. What do you think?

Only $8000 for a seat? Is that a special one time price or is that what they plan to charge regularly? Let's hope the latter and that it's not a bluff!

damn, i hope they are not bluffing, canadian arrow here i come...

although there rocket looks kinda dodgy, he he, ...

I apoligize for the poll, it was supposed to contain Scaled Composites and the Suborbital Corporation, but they mysteriously went MIA. I frogot to mention that the evil underdog team Suborbital Corporation (and the only Russia-based team, incidentally), while not intending to win the X-Prize, plans on setting up a company for regular flights to space. I assume that this would be somewhat akin to the insanely overpriced centrifuge and MiG rides you can get over there as of now.

To ensure that they're not bluffing, reserve your flight at http://www.astronaut.ca. I sure hope that link worked. Anyway, this is the site I got that information from, and granted it's over a year old, so don't expect it to be increadably accurate. Apparently, it's $8,000 to reserve a seat, not actually fly. They don't say the actual flight price, so I apoligize if I unececarilly got your hopes up about flying to space next June for the price of a Kia.

But hey, it could still happen!

http://www.astronaut.ca/seat-reservation.pdf

it says each ticket will cost $100,000 CAD, the 8k is just for the reservation.

I think Luke Skywalker could say it best...

108 thousand?! I could by my own ship for that!

But still, Canadian seems to have the best business plan. Suborbital and Starchaser look good also, but I'm a bit sceptical about the Vinci team. As for Scaled, I think they are to supply ships rather than setting up a spaceline

I can remember when VCRs cost $4000 USDollars. Now they are less than $100 USD. Private space development can be as rapid as that in electronics and computers, if the regulators would get out of the way.

If so we would see suborbital flights for less than $20,000 in under 5 years and you will see these flights from many continents.

Canadian Arrow has completed the first series of tests on their 57,000 lb thrust engine.

http://www.canadianarrow.com/propulsion.htm

I tend to agree that Canadian Arrow is not only showing consistent progress, but is developing a program with paying passengers in mind.

This seems to be lacking in the Scaled Composites and Armadillo Aerospace programs. If we are to have a real space tourism industry, teams going for the XPRIZE need to do more than just win it.

The exciting thing about Canadian Arrow is that their 10 day Astronaut training is only 8,659 CND or approximately 6,600 USD. And the price of suborbital trip is only 100,000 CND or approximately 76,600 USD.

I have one client who is spending 60,000 USD for an MBA degree. What a waste! If I had the 60,000 USD, I would work to save the other 20,000 USD to buy a ticket on one of their first suborbital flights.

Don't know if this was posted elsewhere, but Canadian Arrow has a new additional website:

http://www.astronaut.ca/

If they can make it 8,000 dollars, millions of people will be lining up to go!

On that website, Canadian Arrow mentions that they plan to offer tours of their new facility. This is an exciting idea.

However, I think the real "spectator cash" will come from watching actual launches. Think how many people go to watch Shuttle launches... now think how many would go if:
- the rocketpad was in their state or province, instead of in Florida
- there was a rocket launch every week, instead of every few months
- the passengers were regular people, instead of astronauts
- the chance of weather or technical delay was low, instead of above 50%

That should describe the situation of the X PRIZE competitors a few years from now. Imagine the profits if you could charge $5 per seat to watch one of these events!

Call me a cynic, but I think this website shows either that (a) Canadian Arrow rocket progress is going miserably and they are setting up this "astronaut" facility in an attempt to make some money, even if they don't have a vehicle that works, or (b) their priorities are wrong and they are wasting a lot of money on this center when what they should really be doing is getting a working rocket.

Is it going miserably of just slow? The recent firing of their test engine represents what in your mind?

It represents a great achievement for them, but until I see something more than some CAD drawings of what is essentially a 60 year old design (V2) on their website, I won't be too impressed in relation to Burt Rutan's working hardware. Hopefully, they are much farther along hardware-wise than their website reveals.