Virgin Galactic Offers Space Travel
Posted on 11. Aug, 2011 by Anna Zimmerman in Technology, World
“Sky is no longer the limit” were the words of Sir Richard Branson when he saw his own commercial spacecraft landed. Sir Richard Branson’s dream of commercial space travel is a step closer to reality as the world’s first commercial spacecraft took its first trip on Sunday. Flying over California’s Mojave Desert, the flight was a standard test mission with only the pilots on board.
According to Virgin Galactic, Branson’s company which is behind the project, the spacecraft, VSS Enterprise, successfully finished the test flight. Launching from a mothership, VSS Enterprise flew at an altitude of 45,000 feet (13,700 meters). ”Now, the sky is no longer the limit, and we will begin the process of pushing beyond to the final frontier of space itself over the next year,” Branson said.
According to the company’s statement, Branson has said that it was one of the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin. “I watched the world’s first manned commercial spaceship landing on the runway at Mojave Air and Space Port and it was a great moment,” the 60 year old industrialist said.
Extensive preparations were made for Sunday’s test flight. The mothership, Eve, carrying the VSS Enterprise, flew 40 times prior. Sunday test flight was successful with all the goals met. The two primary objective were to have a good and clean release from mothership, Eve, and a smooth glide back to its launching pad in Souther California. The test flight also serve as verification for the handling, stalling, stability, and systems performance before and after.
In its official statement, the company said “Virgin Galactic is now well on the way to becoming the world’s first commercial space line with 370 customer deposits totaling $50 million”. For future bookings, Virgin Galactic envisions a one flight a week, with six tourists aboard, schedule. Passengers will pay $200,000 for the complete package — ride and train for at least three days before going. Currently, approximately 80,000 names are written on the waiting list for seats.
Branson was quoted earlier saying “What I want to be able to do is bring space travel down to a price range where hundreds of thousands of people would be able to experience space, and they never dreamed that [they] could”.
Pilot Pete Siebold and co-pilot Mike Alsbury manned the Virgin Galactic spaceship on Sunday. ”The VSS Enterprise was a real joy to fly, especially when one considers the fact that the vehicle has been designed not only to be a Mach 3.5 spaceship capable of going into space but also one of the worlds highest altitude gliders.” Siebold said, according to the company’s statement.
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born in July 18, 1950 at Blackheath, London, England. He is a businessman best known for Virgin group of over 360 ventures. Branson was named 212th richerst person in the world in Forbes 2009 list of billionaires. He has an estimated net worth of approximately £2.97 billion (US$4.0 billion).
Virgin Galactic is Virgins Group owned venture. The company aims to provide commercial sub-orbital and orbital spaceflights to the paying public.
One Response to “Virgin Galactic Offers Space Travel”
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I think this is one of the few times imo when privatization is a really good idea. Whether we think it’s necessary or not, we need to continue to develop new forms of space travel and technology to facilitate it. What the ppl whose only argument is “we have too many problems down here to be worrying about this,” they fail to understand the two most important implications of aeronautical research. The first is for national defense… it’s bad enough that nasa has to rely on Russia to ferry them to the ISS. If we keep going at this rate, our disadvantage will only grow as they continue to develop new technologies in their space program while we pump the brakes on ours. Is air and space superiority something you really want the Russians to have? It doesn’t seem like a good idea for any one country to have, let alone one whom we have a sketchy history with. The second is that with aeronautical research comes a flood of new technologies, most of which are very applicable to us down on earth. For example, if it wasn’t for nasa, we wouldn’t have the chips that we use for non-invasive biopsies, solar energy, and a whole litany of other things (http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html#Top has a good number of inventions that most of us don’t know came from our space program). And if you’re one of those ppl that are so skeptical (or cynical imo) that you still don’t think that any of the things on this list warrant a larger investment in a privatized space industry, just remember that while you sleep at night, you most likely have nasa to thank for that, too. If you use any type of home security system, chances are they use infrared and laser technology that came out of nasa’s research (just look at the adt home security infrared camera page. They even admit that the technology came from nasa!)