No, it had a payload of at least twice that (more if you include pilot). It had to be capable of carrying two passengers. It carried ballast instead. You demonstrate once again that you have no idea what you're talking about. And the two-week turnaround could have been done much more quickly had it been important to do so. It's also silly to whine about turnaround on a developmental vehicle. The operational one will be designed for fast turnaround, because the economics require it.
So what is the payload of the Virgin Galactic Spaceship 2 which is under development of space tourism?
I see that you can't be bothered to look up the simplest things, and are determined to continue to look the fool. It's designed to carry six passengers and two crew. Average a couple hundred pounds per person. Do the math.
It will turn around in a day or so. Better-designed vehicles, such as from Rocketplane or XCOR, or Armadillo, will be even cheaper and faster to turn around, since they'll use liquid propellants, instead of hybrids. Armadillo demonstrated a one-hour turnaround at the X-Prize Cup last fall.
Hooray Bright light. With 8 folks and their space suits that comes out to about 1,600 pounds of payload. Given the Nutty Professor’s estimate of 1,000,000 tons of Sulfur needed it will only require 1,250,000 flights. Also, this Spaceship2 is targeted to start test flights in late 2008 or early 2009. So, by 2010 we should be able to see the possibility of a non passenger Spaceship2 ready to save the earth.
I see in the propaganda for the tourist version they say they can maybe make 2 flights a day. That would only require a total of 625,000 days or 1,717 years; yeah real practical. That’s ok, the world still needs dreamers. You could probably make a good living thinking up things for Fantasy Land in a Disney Theme Park.
You no longer amuse me. I found you fun to play with, but your enjoyment factor is long since gone.