Tag Archive for 'suborbital tourism'

Rutan: SS2 Not Worked on in a Year; Accident Report Due Soon

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on July 28, 2008
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Jeff Foust has an update on why SpaceShipTwo remained in the shop while its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft was rolled out on Monday. Apparently, it’s been sitting there at 70 percent complete for the past year while the company thoroughly investigated an explosion that claimed the lives of three workers. Foust quotes designer Burt Rutan as saying:

“We have not worked on SpaceShipTwo in a year because there’s a possibility that the propulsion system would be markedly different and we’d be building things that we would have to scrap.”

Rutan declined to elaborate on technical matters beyond saying that the accident investigation is resulting in “a lot” of changes to the suborbital vehicle. He also said that report on the July 26, 2007 explosion would be released soon.

The comments are in sharp contrast to remarks made by X Prize founder Peter Diamandis, who immediately after the accident publicly claimed that the explosion was unrelated to spaceflight and had no bearing on the safety of the vehicle that Scaled Composites is building for Virgin Galactic.

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Virgin Galactic, Scaled Composites Roll-out “Eve” Mothership

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Sir Richard Branson and designer Burt Rutan walk aside the Virgin Mothership “Eve” (VMS EVE) in Mojave, CA. on the eve of its official rollout on July 28, 2008.

Virgin Galactic Unveils Space Liner Mothership
Space.com

“With all the pageantry of a king’s arrival, the WhiteKnightTwo — a huge flying launch pad to support passenger suborbital space travel — is making its public debut here today.

“The rollout of the colossal composite plane signals the first phase of a critical test program to establish a private spaceliner business — a venture being bankrolled by British entrepreneur and billionaire, Richard Branson and his Virgin Group.

“Looking like a giant catamaran for the sky, the twin-boom, two individual fuselages are topped by a large, 140-foot (42-meter) long stretch of wing. The aircraft will straddle and carry to drop altitude (around 48,000 feet) the SpaceShipTwo — a six passenger, two pilot craft that, once released, rocket’s pay-per-view passengers to some 65 miles (104 km) above the Earth.”

Virgin Galactic Unveils Launch Plane for Upcoming Spacecraft
Wired.com

“After years of secretive construction, Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic presented the first stage of their commercial launch platform, WhiteKnightTwo, today at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

“Sir Richard Branson explains his motive for creating Virgin Galactic: ‘Seeing the planet from out there surrounded by the incredibly thin layer of atmosphere helps one to wake up to the fragility of the small proportion of the planet’s mass that we inhabit and to the importance of protecting the Earth.’”

VIRGIN GALACTIC PRESS RELEASE

Virgin Founder, Sir Richard Branson and SpaceShipOne designer, Burt Rutan, today pulled back the hangar doors on the new WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft that will ferry SpaceShipTwo and thousands of private astronauts, science packages and payload on the first stage of the Virgin Galactic sub-orbital space experience.

The rollout represents another major milestone in Virgin Galactic’s quest to launch the world’s first private, environmentally benign, space access system for people, payload and science.

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Whitehorn Claims SpaceShipTwo “Thousands of Times Safer” on Eve of Roll-out; FAA Official Tells Tourism Companies to Get Real on Safety

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on July 26, 2008
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Almost exactly one year after a fatal explosion that claimed the lives of three Scaled Composites workers, Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn has made an extraordinary safety claim about the as-yet-unflown SpaceShipTwo vehicle during an interview with The Independent.

“Q: New technology involves risk, space travel most certainly does. How can you manage the dangers?

WW: We’re trying to take the riskiest things out of the equation. Ground-based rocketry involves firing a massive explosion under somebody to leave the planet – we’ve eliminated that. So you’re launching in a very safe environment. We’ve hopefully eliminated some of the risks of re-entry, which is another of the most dangerous aspects.

We believe that this will be thousands of times safer than any previous human flights into space.”

The claim came during the same week that George Nield, head of the FAA unit that regulates commercial human space flight, warned space tourism companies to get serious about the risks faced by their wealthy clients.

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Finally, a Good Use for Old Tires: Sending Millionaires into Space

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on July 7, 2008
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Starchaser Industries of Britain has unveiled a new rocket that it plans to use to fly tourists into suborbital space in 2013. The Nova 2 rocket, fueled partly by used tires, will launch as three-person capsule from Spaceport America in New Mexico,  company founder Steve Bennett says. The company plans to test booster next year. Tickets will cost about $200,000.

Steve Bennett to run space flights by 2013
The Telegraph

Passenger rocket fuled by old tyres
The Mirror

“I’ll take tourists into space”
Manchester Evening News

Virgin Galactic Signs Social Networking Deal

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on July 6, 2008
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Virgin Galactic has become the latest company to embrace social networking, signing a deal with introNetworks. The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company will build a system to connect customers who have signed up suborbital flights aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo vehicle.

“Since our inception five years ago, we’ve created smart social networks for companies of varying sizes and personalities, but always within the confines of our planet,” introNetworks CEO Mark Sylvester said in a press release. “By working with the visionaries at Virgin Galactic we have the opportunity to use our technology and creativity to help connect individuals who share a passion to boldly go where only a handful of individuals have gone before.”

The system is set to be launched later this month, corresponding with the July 28 roll out of the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft in Mojave, Calif.

“As a company that has always looked beyond what’s attainable today, we look for partners that share our vision and introNetworks definitely fits that mold,” said David Clark, Virgin Galactic’s Astronaut Relations guru. “We’re looking forward to working with introNetworks to provide our future astronauts with a private and secure network around which they can build a very special community.”

Branson: Tourism Flights Set for Late 2010

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on May 18, 2008
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The Sunday Mirror quotes Richard Branson as saying that Virgin Galactic tourism flights are still about 30 months away. The British billionaire, speaking in Kenya where his company has rebuilt a school, said that he expects to begin flights in November 2010 after a rigorous test flight program for SpaceShipTwo and its White Knight carrier aircraft.

“NASA have [sic] lost three per cent of all their customers so our testing will be intense,” Branson said. “We are planning 50 test flights before we go up so we will be confident of getting it right.”

He plans to take his parents and children on the first tourism flight - but not his wife, Joan. “She’s not terribly keen on the idea of the kids coming up with me although I think she’s not too bothered about what might happen to me!” Branson joked.

Branson to Officiate Over First Space Wedding; Will Princess Beatrice be the Bride?

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on April 20, 2008
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Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson could preside over the first marriage in space aboard his SpaceShipTwo vehicle next year, The Daily Mail reports.

Although the pair is unidentified, the article notes that British Princess Beatrice, the 19-year-old daughter of Sarah Ferguson, wants to be the first royal married in space. Beatrice, fifth in line to the British throne, is involved with Dave Clark, who works in Virgin Galactic’s marketing department.

The couple can probably get a discount on the $200,000 per person flight, although Beatrice would have no trouble paying for it. The Mail reports that the club-hopping royal was recently looking at a £4.25 million ($8.5 million) four-bedroom, four-bathroom house in the tony London neighborhood of Belgravia.

Whoever the bride and groom are, they presumably would be married during the roughly five minutes of weightlessness they would enjoy during the suborbital flight, which will fly to an altitude of around 68 miles.

Presiding over weddings has become somewhat of a sideline for the brash, publicity savvy Branson. Last year, he became a minister for a day through an online church to officiate over the wedding of Virgin America marketing director Dimitrios Papadognonas and Coco Jones during a Virgin America Airlines flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas. The British billionaire also helped officiate over Google founder Larry Page’s wedding, which was held on Branson’s private Caribbean island.

It’s an interesting approach to nuptials. Weddings are usually about putting the couple up on a pedestal. One never upstages the bride and groom - especially the bride. Having a world famous, publicity-seeking billionaire presiding over the ceremony would tend to do precisely that. Unless, of course, you’re British royalty and outrank him.

On the other hand, who’s going to tell Richard Branson that you don’t want him to preside over the first wedding ever held in outer space aboard his own space plane? Probably no one. I suppose you would treat it as an honor and roll with it.

A Corporate Jet? That’s Soooo 2007…

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on April 14, 2008
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ArabianBusiness.com reports that a Dubai-based company has chartered an entire Virgin Galactic suborbital tourism flight for its top management.

The unnamed company has made a $500,000 deposit on the $1.2 million flight, which will carry six executives to an altitude of about 110 kilometers (69 miles). The flight is expected to take place in 2010. More details will be released in July.

Virgin Looks at Launch Sites in Australia

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on April 12, 2008
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AdelaideNow has a story about Virgin Galactic’s plans to establish a spaceport in Australia for suborbital tourism flights. The London-based company is considering launch sites in South Australia’s Outback and Victoria.

“We do have plans to launch from venues worldwide and Australia is in our long-term plans,” said Virgin Galactic’s Carolyn Wincer. “South Australia and Victoria would be good places to launch from.”

Will Rocketplane Global Soar or Stall?

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on April 9, 2008
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Investors and would-be space tourists are getting antsy about the prospects of Rocketplane Global, the Oklahoma company that plans to launch suborbital flights in two to three years.

Eliza Strickland has an excellent story at Wired.com about the problems plaguing Rocketplane, which originally hoped to begin flying its business jet-style space plane last year. Some investors and customers are looking at other options.

Strickland believes the company made a mistake by trying to tackle both suborbital tourism while also developing an orbital vehicle under NASA’s COTS program. The space agency ended the $207 million agreement in September after Rocketplane failed to come up with private financing to supplement NASA’s funding.

Rocketplane is also suffering from a lack of billionaire investors, such as Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson and Microsoft’s Paul Allen. Virgin also has suffered years of delay, soaring costs, and a fatal explosion that killed three workers at spaceplane builder Scaled Composites. However, investors are still confident about Branson’s suborbital venture.

Former astronaut John Herrington resigned as Rocketplane’s chief test pilot in December. Earlier in the year, a travel company sued Rocketplane alleging the space firm was focusing on the COTS and had abandoned it space plane.