> Elon Musk is the only human being that can use the Zaphod Beeblebrox pickup line, "Do you wanna see my spaceship?".

Is Richard Branson not a human?

Hacker News has a huge boner for Elon Musk. They forget that others beat Musk and are well known for beating Musk (re: spaceships).

Only in the most literal sense they could be called spaceships. They are no more spaceships than a swimming suit is a boat.

Those two sentences are contradictory. A swimming suit is not a boat, especially in "the most literal sense."

A suborbital manned spacecraft, OTOH, is a spaceship in every sense. (It's neither an orbital spaceship nor, say, an interplanetary spaceship, but it's definitely a spaceship.)

Saying they aren't is like saying a riverboat isn't a boat because it's not ocean-going.

A suborbital spaceship is analogous to a boat that can go into waters, just as long as they are knee-deep.

It can touch space, but a ship is not defined by its ability to touch the water.

Does Richard Branson have passenger vehicles that can achieve interplanetary flight?

No, but then neither does Musk, or anyone else, individual, corporate, or government.

Not even get into orbit.

No one does.

Suborbital flight is a stretch, but I agree Branson seems to be an inspiration for Zaphod's movie depiction.

Uhh, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos?

For the moment, I suppose you can still make a case for casual use of the term "spaceship" to include suborbital flights. I doubt that will continue for very long as private orbital spacecraft and launch vehicles become less novel; the sub-orbital minor leagues probably won't be seen by most as being the "real thing".

Just ask Alan Shepard. You know, the first American in space?

Presumably because in this sense, the Mercury wasn't "his spaceship" as he didn't own it or the organization that produced it (like Gagarin and the Vostok, for that matter).

Mercury was capable of staying in space. The rocket that put it on a suborbital flight is a different thing.

Havala kavulah!!!!!