Virgin Galactic has released the final design of the launch system that will take fare-paying passengers into space. It is based on the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne concept – a rocket ship that is lifted initially by a carrier plane before blasting skywards. The Virgin system is essentially a refinement, but has been increased in size to take eight people at a time on a sub-orbital trip, starting in 2010.
Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson said the space tourism business had huge potential. “I think it’s very important that we make a genuine commercial success of this project,” he told a news conference in New York. “If we do, I believe we’ll unlock a wall of private sector money into both space launch systems and space technology. This could rival the scale of investment in the mobile phone and internet technologies after they were unlocked from their military origins and thrown open to the private sector.”
The ‘experience’
Virgin Galactic has contracted the innovative aerospace designer Burt Rutan to build its spaceliners, who has constructed the carrier – White Knight Two (WK2) and SpaceShipTwo (SS2). Both vehicles are being constructed at Mr Rutan’s Scaled Composites factory in California.
The rocket spaceliner will carry two pilot astronauts and six ticketed passengers. They will fly initially from a new facility called Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert. The space journeys will last about two-and-a-half hours from beginning to end. Passengers on SS2 will climb to an altitude of 110km, from where they will get to experience weightlessness for a few minutes, and see the curvature of the Earth and the black of space.
The first SpaceShipTwo test flights are expected to start in 2010, with full-fledged space launches to its maximum altitude by or in 2011. The 300 paid passengers have already put down the $200,000 ticket or placed a deposit, according to the company.
SpaceShipTwo’s debut marks the first public appearance of a commercial passenger spacecraft. SS2 has been under construction for two years. On board, there will be room for six passengers and two pilots. Daily space flights for SS2 are set to begin in New Mexico from Spaceport America following the completion of test programming and US government licensing. SS2 will be carried by WhiteKnightTwo mothership, a four-engine jet-powered aircraft unveiled last year that features twin fuselages mounted on either side of a huge wing. SS2 will be mounted in the center. SpaceShipTwo will be released at an altitude of 15,240 meters (50,000 feet.) A rocket motor burning solid propellant with nitrous oxide then will boost SpaceShipTwo onto a steep trajectory to an altitude of more than 100 km (62 miles.)
17 Dec 2009 в 4:56 pm
200 000 $$$$ It is unbelievable!!! Too expansive! I would better by a piece of land on the Moon or send my photo into space just for a couple of dollars!!!!