Sir Richard Branson All Fired Up With Latest Rocket Motor Test
May 31, 2009 by Mary Anne Simpson
Eve--named after Sir Richard's Mom. Credit: Scaled Composites LLC
Virgin Galactic owned by Sir Richard Branson completed a successful test on May 28, 2009 of its hybrid nitrous oxide motor designed by Scaled Composites and a subcontractor Sierra Nevada Corporation. The innovative hybrid motor is the largest of its kind in the world and offers safety features including a kill switch allowing the spaceship to glide back to Earth and perform a conventional runway touch down.
The Virgin Galactic model dubbed, SpaceShipTwo is being built by aerospace expert, Burt Rutan owner of Scaled Composites LLC.
As one might expect, Rutan and Branson have come up with a highly efficient and extraordinary design for their space tourism spacecraft. SpaceShipTwo will launch after reaching the upper atmosphere after detaching from the mother ship called Eve. The hybrid motor uses nitrous oxide and according to Sir Richard does not contain harmful toxins as solid rockets used by the space shuttle. Another advantage of the upper atmosphere launch is the cost savings for fuel.
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The SpaceShipTwo has a capacity to carry six space tourists and two pilots into suborbital space at speeds up to 2500 mph and soar about 65-miles above the Earth. The expected ticket price is $200,000 per passenger and currently there are 300 space tourists on the waiting list. Testing on SpaceShipTwo will begin later this year.
Scaled Composites is located in Mojave, California. Paul Allen provided major funding for the SpaceShipTwo design that went a long way to garner the $10 million dollar Ansari X Prize. The Virgin Galactic team is fired up and ready for GO.
Sources:
Scaled Composites LLC, http://www.scaled.com
Virgin Galactic, http://www.virgingalactic.com
© 2009 PhysOrg.com
16 hours ago
if im gonna pay a fortune to go into space, i better go into space and hang out there awhile damn it. :)
Anyhow, the definition of where "space" begins is not a fixed thing like the difference between the beach and the ocean. The air gets thinner and thinner. The amount of energy to escape the Earth gets less and less. But it doesn't "end" at any particular place. You can orbit pretty low, providing you're willing to put up with the atmosphere. And as for "completely" escaping Earth's gravity...well...the moon orbits the Earth. And as for getting into what's called "deep space". That's quite a lot further than any human being has been.
What a "fortune" is, depends on which end of the stick you're at.
I can only see this getting cheaper and cheaper. Heck if they can get this down to $10 to 20 k average people would do it cause its not like you can experience it anywhere else.
To me if you cant look back on the earth from afar and at least see some starts around it, even if its taking up 98% of th window and stars behind it in the background take up 2% of hte window I would be satisfied with calling that space. But from my understanding, this craft merely hits the upper portion of the atmosphere...this to me is not space...to me, simply put, this is merely a di*k tease.
Also, last I heard, the border of space and earth has now been defined. There was an article a few eeks back on this site about it in fact :) Whether it was right or not of course still remains to be seen :)
You give me that free ticket buddy, and I'll report back to the world whether its a waste of time or not. I kid you not, YouTube reaches faaaaar :D
I can see this having purposes such as easier launches to be able to get to the space station, or later to a lunar colony....but to the upper atmosphere only....its a waste.
Bob-the difference is, you can pay a few million to sit on the space station for a week or so, actually in space, or 200k for this, which by comparison equates to nothing more than choosing a pinto over a 69 camaro RS/SS.....actually in hind sight, you probably cant make trips to the space station anymore since its at full capacity.
Even bargain hunters can participate: I spent several hundred bucks a while back to send a family picture and a physical item up in a Bigelow Aerospace experiment in orbit (about 300 miles.) It will be up there for a decade, and they even have pictures of everyone's stuff (mine seems to be stuck to the wall and never floats free, bummer.)
I grew up reading sci-fi, and I guess I just get a thrill out of the fact that I sent something into orbit. How many people can say that? Oh, wait, I forgot, NASA is taxpayer funded, so I guess most people own something in space. Darn it all, spoil my fun!
If I had that money, I would gladly try this flight.
And this is a wonderful start for other companies to offer similar service, thus bringing down the price as a whole And this will make people start thinking why should we just hang into space, when we could make some facilities-like hotels and so on. And little by little, a new industry will be born. Yay!
But I agree on the aspect of to each his own.
Besides, the minimum starting weight of any useful spacecraft gets very high very quickly when one starts talking of useful masses to useful orbits.... Way beyond anything ever hauled to 10 km altitude by any present aircraft.
To speed up the space tourist industry growth and decrease trip costs Virgin should, in the not too distant future, share their plans of the "Spaceship x" with others interested in setting up a space tourism company...
When the novelty wears off, and a solid tourist base has been estabilished(due to falling costs), then they will look at doing something even more amazing... I wonder who will be the first couple to be honeymooning in zero G?
I do agree on the rest though :)