First space flight for ordinary people
Chamari Senanayake
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The first test flight for WhiteKnight Two over the Mojave Desert
in March this year Pic: Mark Greenburg/Polaris/Eyevine |
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Above: inside Spaceship Two Pic: UPI/Eyevine |
Under the desert sun the scene emerges as if from a science fiction
movie. Indeed the science fiction is soon to come true with any ordinary
traveller being able to travel to the space. Not long ago the British
Billionaire and adventurer Sir Richard Branson announced that his
‘Virgin Galactic’ company would offer space travel to paying customers.
With it’s Sir Norman Foster-designed Spaceport America due to be
completed next year in New Mexico, and it’s spaceship three months into
its flight-test program, he is almost about to fulfill that promise.
There have been just over 500 people in space since 1961 and all of
them being astronauts, Virgin Galactic hope to carry 500 passengers in
their first year itself.
Virgin Galactic needs a small fleet of spacecraft and the aircraft
that carry them to 50,000ft for launch. The plan is for the Spaceship
Company - a joint venture between Virgin Galactic and Mojave-based
aerospace firm Scaled Composites - to build three launch aircraft and
five spaceships, as Virgin Galactic works towards taking fare paying
‘participants’ into sub-orbit space from 2012, and progress towards its
goal of three daily space flights.
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Things you need to know before
your Flight: |
* The Flight
cost 14,000 Pounds (Rs 25,000,000) and you need to attend a
three day training at the Virgin Spaceport.
* At the beginning of the journey, White Knight Two will take
you up to 50,000 ft., and then the Pilot will detach Space ship
Two. The hybrid rocket engine fires and takes you up to 3,000
mph in just 90 seconds.
* When you approach an altitude of 70-80 miles, the Sky darkens
and you are pretty much in space. The rocket will cut out here,
leaving the Spaceship Two to continue on a ballistic trajectory,
which the Pilots can control with thrusters.
* After 15 minutes Pilots will begin re-entry.
* Once back in the atmosphere in 67,000 ft. the wings are
lowered and the Pilots will be able to guide the Spaceship Two
to the landing strip.
*The trip is over, it only last around two and a half hours.
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And for this, they have already tested ‘White Knight Two’ since
March, the most powerful aircraft, that has immense strength in the
middle of its wing that is capable of lifting 17 tones in to the air up
to 50,000 ft altitude.
Unusually for a modern aircraft, computers do not control any of the
onboard flight systems: there are computers, but they’re used solely for
monitoring and informational purposes.
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Sir Norman Foster-designed
Spaceport America is due to be
completed next year in New Mexico Pic: Alpha |
Instead, both mother ship and spacecraft are operated using
traditional stick-and-rudder mechanical aircraft systems. The experience
for the pilot is ‘like flying a Cessna into space,’ says Will Whitehorn,
virgin Galactic MD.
The fuel used to send Apollo astronauts to the Moon was a highly
combustible mixture of liquid nitrogen and kerosene-based aviation fuel;
instead, Virgin Galactic has taken extra precautions when it comes to
safety.
The spacecraft will be fitted with a plug-in rocket booster, which
can be removed after touchdown and a new fuel plug inserted to power the
next flight. The fuel chosen isn’t some high-explosive compound:
‘SpaceShip Two’ will be powered by one of two solid fuels - rubber or
recycled nylon.
With these extra safety measures, and ground breaking research,
Virgin Galactic is looking to the future of space travel. |
