Sure this video from Wired of Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo flying over San Francisco yesterday, carrying SpaceShipOne Two underwing is basically a commercial for Virgin Galactic and we should be scolded for posting such blatant marketing materials (Spoiler alert: inspired-looking Richard Branson at 0:45), but also: It's a commercial for a spaceship. Let that sink in for a moment. In a year or so, regular people are going to buy plane tickets and go in to space for awhile. As if they were just hopping a flight to New York. Katy Perry's going. Her dopey husband is going too, that slob has probably been dreaming of going in to space since he was a little kid. Anyway, the WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipOne flew landed at SFO yesterday to celebrate the opening of Virgin's new Terminal 2. But also spaceships.

Ignoring for a moment that Katy Perry and Russell Brand will unfortunately be our civilian ambassadors to whatever lies just outside of our atmosphere, we were glad to note that current Lite Gov Gavin Newsom was able to hop on the Virgin America flight that accompanied WhiteKnightTwo yesterday. The former mayor tweeted photos to show just how close he was to both Sir Richard Branson's dreamy haircut and an actual spaceship.

Meanwhile, underwater: Branson has also launched Virgin Oceanic, which will take a single pilot in a specially built submarine to the 5 deepest points in Earth's oceans. Clearly, this confirms it: Richard Branson is the person most likely to have a traumatic experience and become an evil super-villain.

[Wired]
[LaughingSquid]