Sander Olson has a report on last week’s FAA commercial space conference over at Next Big Future. Among the interesting items are:
The current cost for space tourism (spending 10 days on ISS) is about $35 million. However, during the next few years sub-orbital flights should be offered for only a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Virgin Galactic has already received $39 million from individuals who have booked sub-orbital flights, and that is a tiny fraction of the potential market.
Currently 80% of the focus of commercial space flight is space tourism. However, Virgin Galactic has designed the SpaceShip2 and WhiteKnight2 to be inherently versatile – WhiteKnight2 can be modified to reach altitudes of 140 kilometers. The potential missions for SpaceShip 2 include public outreach, aeronautical research (space radiation, ionosphere, micro-gravity), astronaut training, and small satellite deployments (200 kilogram satellite to 800 kilometer orbit). Virgin Galactic plans on attaining initial profitability through space tourism and then expanding to these other markets, thereby growing the market. Assuming that SpaceShip2 and WhiteKnight2 are successful, Virgin Galactic will almost certainly come out with a WhiteKnight3 and SpaceShip3.
Read the full report.
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“WhiteKnight2 can be modified to reach altitudes of 140 kilometers.”
….
What? I hope they mean SpaceShipTwo, as I have doubts about the performance of a jet powered aircraft at those altitudes, not to mention its re-entry profile.
Yeah, must be SpaceShipTwo. That would be about 86.5 miles, which is above the roughly 70 miles that I’ve seen quoted for normal SpaceShipTwo flight profiles. Wonder how much more weightless time that would give them.