Virgin Galatic Spaceship
Interior of the SpaceshipTwo unveiled.
Get ready to hear something like this “Ladies and Gentlemen, fasten your seat-belts as we take off for Moon". British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson might just give life to your dreams of traveling the space. Read how.
On Thursday, Sir Richard Branson amid media and press showcased the Virgin Galactic, SpaceShipTwo Interior Concept. He reveled that in future passengers boarding the Virgin Galactic spaceliners can expect cushioned reclining seats and lots of windows during suborbital flights aboard SpaceShipTwo. He also believed that in 12 months the actual plane would be unveiled and the test flights would take place soon after that.
Burt Rutan a veteran aerospace designer of California-based Scaled Composites have contributed towards Virgin Galactic’s spaceliners SpaceShipTwo vehicles. Earlier, Burt Rutans, SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for privately-developed piloted spacecraft capable of reaching suborbital space twice in two weeks. But the new spacecraft will be three times the size of Rutan’s SpaceShipOne.
A total of eight people can comfortably travel space. Six passengers and two piots would be hauled into launch position by WhiteKnightTwo. The massive WhiteKnightTwo is currently under construction by Scaled Composites. The WhiteKnightTwo carrier vehicles are reported to be bigger than a Boeing 757 jet.
The tickets start at, hold your breathe, a price of $200,000. The passengers will buy a 2.5-hour flight aboard SpaceShipTwo. The launch is from an altitude of about 60,000 feet (18,288 meters). An animation depicted passengers clad in their own personal spacesuits as they reached a maximum altitude of at least 68 miles (110 kilometers).
The spacesuits have not been finalized as yet. These suits are most likely to come equipped with personal data and image recorders to add to SpaceShipTwo’s in-cabin cameras. The SpaceShipTwo has doubled-skinne hull as added security and safety of the passengers and pilots inside its pressurized cabin.
In early 2008, the spacesliners are scheduled to roll out and begin test flights in Mojave, California. The company said, in near future spaceflights would operate from New Mexico’s Spaceport America beginning in 2009.
The SpaceShip Two is intelligently designed. Because, during the spaceflight Passengers will have several minutes of weightlessness and then have approximately 40 seconds to return to their seats. If at all in rare cases the passengers can not return to their seats, the floor of SpaceShipTwo is designed to be can be used. For convenience, WhiteKnightTwo carrier vehicles will also sport the same interior of SpaceShipTwo. This will used to help train passengers during a three-day orientation period before launch.
The two pilots is a brilliant idea as it not only allows for redundancy, but frees one pilot to handle any passenger emergencies during flight.
Unlike SpaceShipOne used the rubber and nitrous oxide mixture, the new spaceliners SpaceShip Two would rely on a new type of hybrid rocket fuel. The WhiteKnightTwo will also rely on new, cleaner-burning jet engines. This engine is very similar to the Virgin GlobalFlyer aircraft.
Virgin Galactic has plans to fly 500 passengers a year at about US$200,000 each, to an altitude of over 100 km, with a total weightless time of 7 minutes.
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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Virgin Galatic Spaceship
Interior of the SpaceshipTwo unveiled.
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