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On Monday, 7 December, 2009, a high-profile launch ceremony was held in Mojave, California, in relation to a projected
commercial space tourism flights venture under the name Virgin Galactic.
The altitude of 328,000 feet converts into 62 miles or 100 kilometers above Earth's surface and represents what many consider to be the edge of space. The X-prize winning conditions were achieved in October, 2004, by the Burt Rutan designed SpaceShipOne which was crewed by a single pilot but which also carried the ballast equivalent of two passengers. In July, 2005, Richard Banson joined forces with Burt Rutan's company, Scaled Composites, with the intention of building a fleet of commercial sub-orbital spaceships and launch aircraft. The new company was intended to own the designs of a new SpaceShipTwo ( SS2 ) sub-orbital spacecraft and also new WhiteKnightTwo ( WK2 ) launch system.
SpaceShipTwo is designed to have a crew of two with additional room for six passengers.
Also as of December, 2009, some 480 individual human beings - principally Russian, American or Chinese - had actually experienced in-space flight. If things go to plan the $450 million (£270 million) project will eventually see five commercial vessels shuttling into space such that the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo space tourism flights service offers the possibility of an additional 1,000 human beings joining this miles-high club, as fare-paying space tourists, in the first year of operations.
The pair reached 45,000ft - just below the 50,000ft altitude at which SpaceShipTwo will eventually be released on a Mach 3 thrill ride to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere. Richard Branson said in a statement, "Watching VSS Enterprise fly for the first time really brings home what beautiful, ground-breaking vehicles Burt and his team have developed for us." On 10/10/10, in a further roll-out of the pre-service testing program, WhiteKnightTwo parted company with SpaceShipTwo at 45,000 feet allowing SpaceShipTwo to demonstrate its capability to independently return to earth safely in glide-flight mode. This period of independent flight saw SpaceShipTwo flying freely for 11 minutes before landing at an airport runway.
"The next big step will be the rocket tests actually on the spacecraft itself," Branson said. "We've obviously have done thousands of rocket tests on the ground, the next big test is in the air. We'll be doing gentle rocket tests in the air, ultimately culminating into taking the spaceship into space."
Notable individuals included in this list of potential space tourists include Stephen Hawking, climate change scientist James Lovelock, singer Sarah Brightman, ex-Dallas actress Victoria Principal and Paypal founder Elon Musk. The Virgin Galactic programme is hoped to be ready for launch early in 2012, and will take off from a special SpacePort being built in New Mexico to designs developed by acclaimed architects Foster and Partners. The New Mexico authorities are investing almost $200m (£121m) in this purpose-built facility in Upham. It will have a 3,000m (10,000ft) runway and a suitably space-age terminal and hangar building.
In relation to the Virgin Galactic enterprise itself Sir Richard Branson was careful to downplay the carbon footprint of the SpaceShipTwo space tourism flights service. Made of carbon composite, a lighter material than metal, the ship is more fuel efficient than current space vehicles, with a carbon footprint reputed to be equivalent to one business class ticket from London to New York per passenger, compared to the current Space Shuttle carbon count which is equal to the energy output of New York City for five days! Virgin Galctic considers that the technology used in their program has a relatively low environmental impact. Will Whitehorn, Virgin Galactics President stated that "we will, over a ten-year program, fly tens of thousands of people into space with less impact than one (Space) Shuttle." The mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo, is made largely of a lightweight carbon composite and powered by biobutanol and is intended to take the captive-carry SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of some 10 miles (16 Kilometers). After release SpaceShipTwo's two man crew and the craft's six passengers will be boosted into sub-orbital space fuelled by nitrous oxide and recycled nylon to experience some six minutes of weightlessness, and awesome views of Mother Earth, on each Space Tour. Virgin Galactic are not alone in seeking to become involved in Space Tourism - a Blue Origin service, relying on a rocket propelled vehicle called the New Shephard - is being developed with the backing of Amazon creator Jeff Bezos. As far as possible future developments of this technology goes. Experts say that by travelling into near-Earth orbit, the length of inter-continental flights could be cut dramatically, so a flight from London to Sydney could last just two hours. Virgin Galactic were also contemplating a lucrative commercial spin-off that could have seen orbital satellites (for telecoms etc.) being launched towards their intended orbits from high-flying WhiteKnightTwo motherships but the department charged with developing this approach seems to have been scaled back in early 2010. |
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