MAR 2024 CURRENT MEMBERSHIP 1177 MEMBERS | PERFORMANCE - RIO ARC (GBP) £250.07 +6.72% (1 Year) | RIO ARC (USD) $237.52 +7.04% (1 Year) | RIO REGULAR INVESTMENT ACCOUNT $259.85 +11.17% (1 Year) | RIO REGULAR INVESTMENT ACCOUNT (GBP) £219.98 +5.29% (1 Year) | RIO PLATINUM ACCOUNT £233.14 +0.31% (1 Year) | RIO PLATINUM ACCOUNT (USD) $181.39 +2.90% (1 Year) | RIO SILVER LINING ACCOUNT $163.71 +2.83% (1 Year)


RIO Forbes Articles
Forbes October 2022
Forbes June 2022
Forbes March 2022
Forbes December 2021
Forbes September 2021
Forbes June 2021
Forbes February 2021
Forbes October 2020
Forbes August 2020
Forbes May 2020
Forbes Nov 2019
Forbes May 2019
Forbes July 2018
Forbes August 2017
Forbes June 2016
Forbes July 2014
Forbes March 2012

RIO Stock Trading Reports
RIO Stock Trading GBP Feb2024
RIO Stock Trading USD Feb2024
RIO Stock Trading USD Dec2023
RIO Stock Trading GBP Dec2023
RIO Stock Trading GBP Oct2023
RIO Stock Trading USD Oct2023
RIO Stock Trading GBP Jul2023
RIO Stock Trading USD Jul2023
RIO Stock Trading USD Feb2023
RIO Stock Trading GBP Jan2023
RIO Stock Trading USD Jan2023
RIO Stock Trading Oct2022
RIO Stock Trading GBP Jun2022
RIO Stock Trading USD Jun2022

RIO Press Articles
Globe Asia - Jun 2011
Globe Asia - Currency Wars Nov 2010
Player Magazine - Born Trader 2009

Smart Money Reports
Smart Money Report Mar2024
Smart Money Report Feb2024
Smart Money Report Nov2023
Smart Money Report Oct2023
Smart Money Report Jul2023
Smart Money Report Apr2023
Smart Money Report Jan2023
RIO Smart Money Oct2022

RIO ARC Reports
ARC USD Report Feb2024
ARC USD Report Oct2023
ARC GBP Report Oct2023
ARC USD Report Jul2023
ARC Report May 2023

RIO Platinum USD/GBP Reports
RIO Platinum USD Nov2023
RIO Platinum GBP Oct2023
RIO Platinum USD Jan2023
RIO Platinum GBP Jan2023
RIO Platinum GBP Oct2022

RIO Silver Lining Reports
Silver Lining GBP Report Oct2023
Silver Lining USD Report Oct2023
Silver Lining Report Jan2023
Silver Lining Report Oct2022
Silver Lining Report Jan2022
RIO 888 Reports
RIO 888 Oct 2023
RIO 888 Jul 2023
RIO 888 May 2023
RIO 888 (VO) Oct 2022
RIO 888 Oct 2022
RIO 888 Apr 2022
RIO 888 Mar 2022
RIO 888 Feb 2022
RIO 888 Jan 2022
RIO 888 Aug 2021
RIO 888 Jun 2021
RIO 888 May 2021
RIO 888 Apr 2021
RIO 888 Aug 2020
RIO 888 Apr 2020
RIO 888 Jan 2020
RIO 888 Nov 2019


RIO Currency Concept Reports
Currency Concept Report Dec2023
Currency Concept Report Oct2023
Currency Concept Report Apr2023
Currency Concept Report Oct2022
Currency Concept Report Jan2022

RIO Property Reports
Property Report Feb2024
Property Market Report Nov2023
Property Report Oct2023
Property Report Jan2023
Property Report Oct2022


RIO Regular Reports
Regular USD Report Feb2024
Regular USD Report Nov2023
Regular GBP Report Oct2023
Regular GBP Report Jul2023
Regular USD Report Jul2023

General RIO Club Reports
Gold Report Nov2023
Gold Jan2023
End of Year Summary 2022
Gold Dec2022
More on Gold Jun2022

General Investment Reports
Gold Report Mar2024
Santa Rally? Dec2023
Inflation Mar2023
Bull or Bear? Mar2023
UK Property Report Feb2023

RIO Live Charts
Live Gold Price
Live Silver Price
Live Platinum Price
RIO ARC USD Vs. Live Gold
RIO Silver Lining USD Vs. Live Silver
RIO Platinum USD Vs. Live Platinum
RIO Regular Performance
RIO Currency Concept Performance


RIO Charity and Sponsorship
RIO Sponsors ATGT 2023
RIO Sponsors JSAS Burns Supper 2023
RIO Sponsors PHGT 2022
RIO Sponsors the JSAS Ball Nov 2022
RIO Joins the Rotary Club


Health Wealth and Happiness



Download the historic RIO magazines

 

Sir Richard Branson takes off on 'extraordinary' space flight

UK businessman Sir Richard Branson is on his way to fulfilling a lifetime's ambition: flying to the edge of space.

His Virgin Galactic rocket plane has taken off for a 1.5-hour mission which will see it reach an altitude where the sky turns black and the Earth's horizon curves away into the distance.

The entrepreneur says he wants to evaluate the experience before allowing paying customers aboard next year.

The mission above New Mexico began shortly after 08:30 EST (15:30 BST).

It's been a long road for Sir Richard to get to this point. He first announced his intention to make a space plane in 2004, with the expectation he'd have a commercial service available by 2007.

But technical difficulties, including a fatal crash during a development flight in 2014, have made the space project one of the most challenging ventures of his career.

"I've wanted to go to space since I was a kid, and I want to enable hopefully hundreds of thousands of other people over the next 100 years to be able to go to space," Sir Richard told the BBC.

"And why shouldn't they go to space? Space is extraordinary; the Universe is magnificent. I want people to be able to look back at our beautiful Earth and come home and work very hard to try to do magic to it to look after it."

The vehicle, known as Unity, will be carried by a much bigger aeroplane to an altitude of about 15km (50,000ft), where it will be released.

A rocket motor in the back of Unity will then ignite and blast the ship skyward. The motor will burn for 60 seconds, by which time Sir Richard, his three crewmates and the two pilots up front, will have a remarkable view of the planet below.

The maximum height achievable by Unity is roughly 90km (55 miles, or 295,000ft), but towards the top of the climb Sir Richard will start to enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness and he'll be able to float around the cabin and to look out of the window.

Eventually, though, he'll have to strap back into his seat for the glide return to the spaceport in New Mexico.

Sir Richard will be taking instruction throughout the flight from Beth Moses. She's the chief astronaut instructor at the businessman's Virgin Galactic company. Apart from the firm's cadre of test pilots, Moses is the only person who's so far experienced the exhilaration of an ascent. The view out of the window, she says, is "just phenomenal".

"Pictures don't do it justice. It's just so bright and beautiful. I saw the ocean, and halfway up the US and halfway down into Mexico. I saw the green of the land and the white snow-capped mountains," she told BBC News.

"Because you are weightless and still, and the ship has come to a stop, you can just soak it in, in a really timeless way. It stuck in my soul."

 

 



©Copyright 2000 - 2024 The RIO Club http://www.therioclub.com