TECHNOLOGY: Virgin Galactic-The First Commercial
Spaceflight Company at a glance
On October 31st, at 10.51am PST, Spaceship Two crashed to Earth after
experiencing an in-flight anomaly. The flight was the first test of Spaceship
Two with new plastic-based fuel, replacing the original—a rubber-based solid
fuel that had not met expectations. The crash caused one fatality and one
serious injury.
When we all heard these news, we didn’t become
surprised at all, just thinking it was one of the many unsuccessful launches
NASA performed. However, the accident
affected a different sector of the space industry; this time, Virgin Galactic,
the pioneer company in commercial spaceflights.
Founded in 2004, the first and most important mission was
to design and manufacture a privately funded vehicle that could deliver the weight
of three people (including one actual person) to suborbital space.
The vehicle had to be 80 percent reusable and fly twice
within a two--‐week
period. Spaceship One was born to fulfill the initial tests in 2004. With this
success, the Virgin Group licensed Mojave Aerospace Venture’s technology and
invested in the development of a second-generation vehicle for commercial
purposes. Currently, for Tourism Experiences, the spaceline owns and operates a
space system consisting of two vehicles, Spaceship Two and White Knight Two.
The planned trajectory would achieve a suborbital journey with a short period of
weightlessness. Carried to about 16 kilometers, or 52000 ft, by the 'buddy'
aircraft, White Knight II, after separation
the vehicle would continue to over 100 km (the Karman line, a common definition of where “space” begins). The time from
liftoff of the White Knight booster carrying Spaceship Two until the touchdown
of the spacecraft after the suborbital flight would be about 2.5 hours.
Spaceship Two, Virgin Galactic’s primary space
vehicle, is designed to reach an altitude that exceeds NASA’s definition of
space and earns the potential customers official astronaut status. Passengers
will experience the unique thrills of spaceflight, enjoying the opportunity to
leave their seats to float in zero--‐gravity for six
minutes.
Looking out through twelve large windows, passengers
will take in astounding views of space and of the Earth below, stretching
approximately 1,000 miles in every direction. Prior to the flight, passengers
will go through three days of preparation, medical checks and bonding with
their flight crew–all of which is included in the Price of the space ticket.
A Virgin Galactic suborbital flight for an individual
costs $250,000. To date, the company has received more than $89 million in
deposits and sales from approximately 700 individuals (20% more than the total
number of people who have ever gone to space). Among them, famous people like Stephen
Hawking, Tom Hanks, Lady Gaga, Ashton Kutcher, Katy Perry, Brad Pitt, and
Angelina Jolie, already made their reservations.
In Addition to a Virgin Galactic direct reservations
facility, a specialist network of Virgin Galactic Accredited Space Agents has
been set up around the world to provide a localized reservation service.
Virgin Galactic will also market Spaceship Two for
suborbital space science missions and market
White Knight Two for “small satellite” launch services. It had planned to
initiate RFPs for the satellite business in
early 2010, but flights had not materialized as of 2014.
Private space flights for the rich are far from being
completed, but they will not become another unsolved failure. On the contrary, As
George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic’s chief executive, pointed out in an
interview that took place before the crash, there have been around 100
space-launch vehicles in history. A handful of rocket planes, though, of which
only two (the Space Shuttle and the X-15) have flown in space with anyone on
board. New technology is always tricky to master; new rocket technology can be
some of the trickiest of all.
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