Send me to space for 200K!
At a press conference in New York today, Richard Branson, founder of the space-tourism outfit Virgin Galactic, unveiled models of engineer Burt Rutan's SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo, the passenger- and launch-vehicles that will ferry Branson's first customers into space...
WhiteKnightTwo is something like a huge trouser hanger in the sky -- a large central wing that connects two passenger cabins. SpaceShipTwo will attach to WhiteKnightTwo in between those two cabins.
WhiteKnightTwo will fly up to 50,000 feet high; passengers sitting on it will thus get some experience of a spaceflight, including some moments of weightlessness. But at that point, the fun's over for these people. The folks sitting in between them on SpaceShipTwo -- you might call them First Class passengers -- get to start the real show.
SpaceShipTwo will unhook from WhiteKnightTwo and then fire off its rockets, flying to more than 62 miles up. SpaceShipTwo's wings then rotate up, turning the plane into a glider that can come back down to earth.
Virgin Galactic aims to test parts of the projected flight later this year, but there's no solid timeframe for when the first passengers might go up. Already 200 people have paid deposits to fly into space (it costs upwards of $200,000 per person). At full operation, Virgin say each SpaceShipTwo/WhiteKnightTwo pair can make two flights per day; SpaceShipTwo carries six passengers and two crew members.
- Machinist
I think this is something to add to the 'places I want to go' list. Space!!
WhiteKnightTwo is something like a huge trouser hanger in the sky -- a large central wing that connects two passenger cabins. SpaceShipTwo will attach to WhiteKnightTwo in between those two cabins.
WhiteKnightTwo will fly up to 50,000 feet high; passengers sitting on it will thus get some experience of a spaceflight, including some moments of weightlessness. But at that point, the fun's over for these people. The folks sitting in between them on SpaceShipTwo -- you might call them First Class passengers -- get to start the real show.
SpaceShipTwo will unhook from WhiteKnightTwo and then fire off its rockets, flying to more than 62 miles up. SpaceShipTwo's wings then rotate up, turning the plane into a glider that can come back down to earth.
Virgin Galactic aims to test parts of the projected flight later this year, but there's no solid timeframe for when the first passengers might go up. Already 200 people have paid deposits to fly into space (it costs upwards of $200,000 per person). At full operation, Virgin say each SpaceShipTwo/WhiteKnightTwo pair can make two flights per day; SpaceShipTwo carries six passengers and two crew members.
- Machinist
I think this is something to add to the 'places I want to go' list. Space!!