Cameron: "Welcome to Seven on 7 this morning for a special edition of our show. Today officially marks a new era in mankind's space exploration as our beloved superhero Homelander officially enters the race by performing the official test flight of theV-Light's V1 capsule."
"Now I'm not expert in any matters related to space so joining me today to remark on this tremendous moment is retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot and musician Chris Hadfield. Welcome to the show Christ."
Chris: "Thank you Cameron. Glad to be here."
Cameron: "Now Chris you have been given access to the V1 capsule and behind the scenes at V-Light. What can you tell us about it?"
Chris: "Well Cameron, it is essentially a capsule that is 9 meters in diameter and 18 meters in height. It has a volume of approx. 1000 cubic meters of cargo space and it weighs about 4 metric tons."
Cameron: "And how much weight can this capsule hold?"
Chris: "That is an interesting question. The payload of the capsule, that is the term we use for the cargo carrying capacity of space rockets, is technically up to 100 tons. Now of course I'm not sure if the term really applies here since Homelander is replacing the role of the rocket. So maybe it's better to refer to it as the weight that the capsule can support in case of emergency descent."
Cameron: "Emergency descent, what do you mean by that? Can you elaborate?"
Chris: "Since Homelander is doing the lifting it all depends on how much weight he can fly into orbit. In test flights I've seen him move up to 30 tons quite easily. So our instinct is to say that payload is 30 tons. However the capsule itself can always be reinforced to hold more weight as long as Homelander can fly it up and the special harness that attaches Homelander to the capsule holds."
"But what if the harness snaps, or there is some sort of unknown accident and he loses control of it and drops it. So the engineers asked themselves what is the highest weight that they can safely use parachutes on for an emergency descent? The current design and materials allow for a safe descent for up to 100 tons. So even if Homelander could lift 200 tons they would never load the capsule to that weight with the current harness and emergency descent system."
Cameron: "Wow, thank you for making that distinction for myself and our viewers at home."
"And today's test flight there is no cargo in the capsule is that right?"
Chris: "That is correct. This flight will be all about getting capsule into low earth orbit about 510 km altitude, testing the various systems and the launch mechanism for the satellites as well of course the descent and emergency systems."
Cameron: "And Chris with Homelander doing heavy lifting there has been talk in the media that Homelander will be distorting the space flight market and that it will be unfair competition. What can you tell us about that?"
Chris: "In a way they are right but they are also wrong. You see problem with putting things into space is the exorbitant cost to lift things up there. With Homelander there is no cost so from a purely business point of view I can see what they mean."
"However from the point of view of mankind as a whole this is exactly what we need to kick things into high gear! With Homelander's help we can expand the space station maybe even start a colony on the moon. He can lift things piecemeal and we can assemble them in orbit."
"We can bring machines to the moon and start manufacturing space craft there. The possibilities are endless!"
Cameron: "A moon colony! Wow just wow! This is really the next great step isn't it?"
Chris: "It sure is Cameron! I hope I can see it in my lifetime."
Cameron: "Now I want to bring it back to the money side of things again since we've gotten a lot of questions about it ever since Vought announced V-Light and even in our congress there has been contention from both sides of the isle about fair competition and getting the approvals and…"
Chris: "Cameron, I'm Canadian so I don't think it's fair for me to discuss the politics involved nor am I an economics expert."
"What I can tell you though is that up to a decade ago almost all manned space flights were government funded and any commercial flights were usually unmanned and cargo carrying only. Essentially launching satellites in space."
Cameron: "Ok."
Chris: "And even the companies launching satellites did it only because they thought they could get a great return from it, so we are talking about big corporations here. As both launch technology and telecommunications technology improved we started to see more smaller secondary players enter the market."
Cameron: "You mean companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin?"
Chris: "Exactly! They brought new ideas and new ways of doing things. And these companies are slowly moving into manned space flights for commercial purposes."
"And they are doing this because they see a market for it, a way to make money. And the more infrastructure we can get into space the easier it becomes to be there, more people will be interested into going there. That will spur more investment for companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, that means more technological advancements making things cheaper which in turn will create even more interest so on and so forth."
Cameron: "So it's the rising tide that will lift all boats…well in this case rockets!"
Chris: "Hahah, well put! Even more so companies should not be worried about competing with Homelander they should be looking at the opportunities Homelander will provide. If anything they should be worried that Homelander will not able to do as much as we want him too!"
Cameron: "Oh, what do you mean by that Chris?"
Chris: "Well superpowers or not he is still just one man and there are only 24hrs in a day. He's chairman of Vought, leader of The Seven the world's greatest superhero, he's flying around helping people left right and centre, he's doing talk shows, movies, promoting science education and so many other things!"
"We are honestly lucky that he has the time to start this venture. I cannot stress enough how much this is going to help humanity if we can just create even the basic orbital infrastructure!"
Cameron: "You know Chris, I never even thought of it that way. Being in New York and working for Vought I think that sometimes I just take Homelander for granted. He's really the gift that keeps on giving!"
"Chris, I've just received word from our producers that V-Light was just given the go ahead and they will launch in 5 minutes. So we are going to switch to the live view for Homelander's take off."
"I hope you can walk us through the different stages of the flight. But before that a quick break!"