Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Could Fly Passengers into Space by End of Year
Enrico Palermo is part of a team in California’s the Mojave Desert working to build and test the aircraft as they get ready to shuttle tourists to space. Last Friday the spaceship designed by Virgin Galactic reached the “edge of space” for the second time in three months, indicating the slow transition from test flights to scheduled services, according to Palermo.
The SpaceShipTwo is a reusable craft, engineered to hold six passengers on a suborbital flight, that will attain an altitude of 100 kilometers above Earth. SpaceShipTwo has an 8-meter wingspan, and it can change shape at its peak altitude allowing for re-entry into the atmosphere.
Virgin Galactic stated that the cabin is built to optimize the zero gravity experience for its passengers. So far, over 600 people have booked a seat for these flights. It has taken 14 years for Virgin Galactic to create and test their ships for public space travel. The company’s original goal was to send tourists into space by 2007 but in 2014 there a fatal crash due to pilot error.
However, testing has gone on since then and pilots like Mark “Forger” Stuckygradually been able to confirm the optimal speed, weight, trajectory and capacity of the aircraft needed to deal with changes in conditions.
Last Friday, the spacecraft reached its highest speed and altitude ever, coming in at 89,918 meters. Head pilot Dave Mackay, was in charge of the crew and he’s the first Scotsman to reach space.
However, Virgin Galactic is not the only billionaire-backed company working on different kinds of spaceships. There is also SpaceX backed by Elon Musk and Blue Origin backed by Jeff Bezos. Virgin Galactic is planning to take their first space tourists by the end of this year, according to Mr. Branson.
Branson told 7.30 that 2019 marks the 50th year of the Moon landing, so it’s an exciting time to send people into space. He hopes that will happen in July 2019.
The first flights will cost $250,000 per person, but Mr. Branson said that even that price is much less expensive than Russian space flight, which sits at approximately $50 million.
Moreover, Branson feels the prices will be reduced in the future. He said that the overall goal is to transport people around the planet at a fraction of the time it currently takes.
Virgin Galactic is also thinking about building a spaceport in Australia. A discussion is currently ongoing with the newly formed Australian Space Agency. However, aviation regulations would need to be updated to include spaceships.
Furthermore, Virgin Galactic has visions for more uses for its spaceships, such as using them to position satellites in orbit for much less than the present price.
The US Government has backed that idea, predicting a rise in the commercial space industry, which is also strongly supported by President Donald Trump.
Elaine Chao, the US Transport Secretary, stated that the space industry would not only generate revenue, but it will also be a driver for technological innovation, as well as offer extraterrestrial sources of energy and raw materials and help form whole new industries. Of course, that means new jobs like a commercial astronaut.
Although not everyone feels that way, Australian astronaut Andy Thomas said the program is just hazardous, dead-end, glorified airplane travel. Whereas, a Timemagazine editor said Virgin Galactic was “amateur hour,” and Mr. Branson was just a man driven by too much pride and too little knowledge of the complex business of engineering.
Fortunately, Mr. Palermo is optimistic and believe that Mr. Branson is correct in saying that tourists will be flying into space by the end of this year as long as testing goes according to plan.
Photo credit: Virgin Galactic
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