Space Tourism Rocket Failure

Witness' say that Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo exploded during a test flight.

In an ABC News release that the space tourism craft was released from its shepherding plane (that  is used to carry it to high altitude) ignited its rocket motor and then exploded seconds later.

Witnesses put the wreckage in the desert north of Mojave Air and Space Port.

CHP's report states that there was one fatality and one major injury.  (SpaceShipTwo is flown by two pilots.)

Virgin Galactic has said little more than to confirm the loss of the craft but has given no details.
More ABC US news 

Virgin Galactic Space Ship Two Has a Successful Second Powered Flight

Virgin Galactic Space Ship Two successfully completed its second powered test flight by going  supersonic. Once dropped from its carry plane, White Knight, SS2 climbed to over 70 thousand feet on a 20 second burn of the main rocket engine.  In doing so SS2 went supersonic to mach 1.43 or almost one and a half times the speed of sound.

Virgin plans to start carrying passenger to low Earth orbit in the latter part of 2014.    From the article

• Virgin Galactic, which already has sold more than 650 rides on SpaceShipTwo, ..... Tickets sell for $250,000.

Listen to the pilots talking, on the video below, w just after they fire the main engine....This is definitely an E ticket ride for sure. 






Check out the complete Discovery News article HERE

Film of Virgin Galactic's Space Ship 2's Second Test Flight

On Sept. 5 at 8am, Virgin's White Knight 2 took off carrying Space Ship 2 for it's second powered test flight.

At 46,000 feet, pilots Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols released Space Ship 2 and fired their rocket engine, for a 20 second burn, a short time later.

During the burn they climbed to 69000 feet and attained a speed of 1.43 mach.

This flight was to test the engine of course but another facet of the unusual craft they wanted to put through it's paces was the movable tail section, which can be moved through 65 degrees of motion.  The purpose of which is to allow the ship to reenter the denser atmosphere and give the pilots a much easier controlled vehicle as it descends.   Where the tail can be rotated back to it's launch position for landing.

Virgin is still looking towards 2014 to begin flying passenger using a fleet of five Spaceship 2 type vehicles. 

Justin Bieber is Going Where? For How Much Money?!!

 My little motorcycle friend delights in dropping bombs on me and this one is no exception.  First off we know what Virgin Galactic is right?   Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot spaceship.  A ride costs $250,000 and will take you to an altitude of about 68 miles plus at apogee giving you a few minutes to experience zero gravity.

Well that being as it may, if you have a quarter mill not doing anything productive, you can give it to Richard Branson to be dangled from and then dropped of a perfectly fine airplane only to be kicked in the ass by the mother of all Hydrogen peroxide rocket.

So far about 500 have sighed on to do just that!    Some really notable names too.  People like physicist Stephen Hawking as well as  Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt.   Even a bit stranger at an auction some one paid 1.2 million for the right to sit next to  Leonardo DiCaprio.  Plus Ashton Kutcher is number 500.  

But when Justin Bieber signed up....well the life went out of me a little bit.  NO NOT because is was some rich kid who wants to take an A ticket ride it was me mental case of a manager  Scooter Braun, whom Bieber also bought a ticket, said that they were the latest "future astronauts." and Bieber tweeted  "let's shoot a music video in SPACE!!"

Excuse me....I need to go now.... I just threw up in my mouth......

Read the whole article in DNA

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Ignites its Rocket

For the first time, Virgin Galactic tested SpaceShipTwo's  rocket motor, and doing so in mid-flight

driving the ship super-sonic!  SS-2 reached a speed of mach 1.2 and climbed apx to 56,000 feet. in altitude.

This puts Virgin another step closer to commercial passenger flights into space.  Girgin Galactic now hopes to make its' first passenger flight in 2014.  Industry experts however say that they would not be at all surprised if the 2014 date proves to be too ambitious and also 

For the complete LA Times article, log here

Virgin Galactic's Hanger / Terminal - Spaceport America completed

Tim Sayell sends in an article from Yahoo News that says after four years of delays, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic terminal and hanger is finally finished. New Mexico governor Susana Martinez dedicated the Spaceport America terminal hanger facility,recently.

As you know, Virgin Galactic will be charging $200,000 per passenger, for a sub-orbital flight. Even at the, no pun intended, sky high price, 455 people have already bought tickets for the 2 1/2-hour suborbital flights that include only about five minutes of weightlessness.

All activities will be handled at the 110,152-square-foot hangar that will house the company's two spacecraft, mission control and a waiting area for the space tourists.

Virgin Galactic's first non-US spaceport

Thanks to Boing Boing for pointing me to the Air & Space article concerning Richard Branson’s Virgin Galatic's to make the company’s first launch site outside the United States. And that site is in one of the most remote places possible, but not completely unknown to the tourist trade, Kiruna Sweden, 90 miles north of the arctic circle, barely rise above 15 degrees Fahrenheit for months on end. The town is also known as the location of the "Ice Hotel".

Virgin plans to launch sub-orbital flights as early as next year. From the article:

• Kiruna could soon be hosting hundreds of space tourists. Suborbital spaceflights from Kiruna, Virgin Galactic spokespeople have promised, could send tourists straight through the Aurora Borealis.

Of course Kiruna has not gone without some level of interest from the Swedish military. Again from the article:

• Because of its remote location and minimal air traffic, Kiruna has been home to an array of aerospace activities for almost half a century. The Swedish government established a space research center here in 1964. The center, called Esrange, today includes a 3,240-square-mile range for launching sounding rockets.

Though in truth, lots needs to be done before even a shovel of permafrost is moved. First and foremost, the US government needs to sign off on exporting the technologies that could possibly used for other purposes. And the Swedish government has got to sign off as well.

Read the complete article here

Flying With White Knight & Space Ship 2

According to an article in Boing Boing Virgin put on quite a media blitz for the opening of Virgin America's new Terminal 2 at the San Francisco International airport. In this short film we see White Knight and Space Ship 2 flying in close formation with the media junket jet that Virgin provided. There are more pics of the event and another short film of the landing at the Boing boing site here

Virgin Galactic 18 months away from first flight

According to France24 via Boing Boing: Richard Branson has gone on record recently as saying that Virgin Galactic is on track to offer commercial space travel within 18 months, and that space hotels are next on the drawing board.

Galactic has already collected 45 million dollars in deposits from more than 330 people who have reserved seats aboard the six-person craft. You will recall that full ticket prices start at 200k.

Of course Branson doesn't stop at just space hotels. From the France24 article

• "We are looking at hotels in space. We love the moon," the tycoon said, adding that he was also interested in launching "small satellites into space" for the benefit of schools and universities.

First Commercial Spacecraft Another Step Closer

Tim Sayell sends in this article from Yahoo News concerning Branson's Virgin Galactic - SpaceshipTwo.

Since Branson won the $10 million Ansari X Prize, we have been getting tantalizing hints as to what Branson and aviation designer Burt Rutan plan for commercial spaceflight.

Virgin unveiled White Knight Two a little over a year ago but only mockups and the shell of SpaceshipTwo has been seen. Now the first public appearance of the commercial passenger spacecraft has been held.

Virgin says that testing of SpaceshipTwo will begin next year with flights to the crafts maximum altitude sometime in 2011.

The first passengers of course will be the families of Branson and Rutan.

For more information - read the complete article here

***update*** here is a series of photos from Boing Boing that are exclusive! Very cool!

LaVerdiere's In Space!

Yep, there is going to be a LaVerdiere's in space. Now you have to be from Maine to understand the humor in this statement. Let me give you some background. Stephen LaVerdiere, a self proclaimed space nut from Belgrade Lakes Maine is paying $200,000 dollars to fly into space aboard Virgin Galactic's Space Ship Two. Stephen's claim to fame will be as the first native Mainer to fly into space. Now before we get cat calls that this isn't outspace and its not at orbital velocity that is true, but "space" is defined as any altitude above 62 miles, so 80 miles more than covers that bill.

But to fully understand the humor of a LaVerdiere's in space is to know that Mr. LaVerdiere is the former owner of a drugstore chain in Maine called....yep...LaVerdiere's...

The 52 year old LaVerdiere is scheduled to fly sometime next year and is a group of about 100 that have already signed up to go.

Good Luck Steve....don't forget your dramamine.... yeah, I went there...

Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo will take first flight soon

Thanks to Shaun Saunders for bringing this New-Scientist article to us:

Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo is set to take is maiden flight very soon. The flight will be the first of dozens planned for the high-altitude craft, which could become the first privately-owned vehicle to carry tourists on sub orbital flights that at their highest will have space tourists in free fall for several minutes. The high-altitude plane is designed to loft an eight-passenger craft called SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of 15 kilometres. There, the spaceship will detach from WhiteKnightTwo and fire a rocket to take passengers some 100 km above the Earth. the plane has passed engine and runway tests and taken small hops off the ground. Though White Knight two may look light weight, it is surprising to know its actual dimensions. The plane is comparable in size to Boeing's B-29 Superfortress, a heavy, long-range bomber that flew during World War II.

Though WhiteKnight/Spaceship Two have yet to finish a fairly rigorous schedule, The testing regime should still put the firm on track to take its first passengers to the edge of space as early as 2010.

Virgin Galactic to Offer Space Cruise through Aurora Borealis

Shaun sends in an article that I think anyone with a pulse would find exciting! From the Daily Galaxy online, I see that Virgin Galactic is not sitting on their laurels by any means. Richard Branson has been busy thinking up new ways to get people excited about private space tourism. He’s offering to fly anyone who can afford the trip, into the world’s biggest lightshow, the Aurora Borealis. Even though the New Mexico Virgin Galactic Spaceport isn't scheduled for completion until 2010, Branson is already planning his next project, an Arctic launchpad located in the far north of Sweden in the small town of Kiruna. Trips through the solar wind light show, though spectacular, have been deemed perfectly safe to those inside a spacecraft. Cost was not mentioned in the article but I suspect that we are still looking at a 20k plus price tag.

Spaceflights now for sale; scary part is price

Considering space travel on one of Virgin Galactic's new ships?

The sales pitch goes like this: The first hour will be relatively painless, a graceful ascent in a spaceship attached to a mother ship. Once the vessels reach 50,000 feet, the ship containing you, five more tourists and two pilots will detach and fall for a moment.

Then, the thrusters will propel it up for 90 seconds, traveling three times the speed of sound. All of the spacecraft's fuel will burn away, leaving its tanks empty.

The G-forces on your body will push your blood toward your feet. It is hoped that you won't black out, but if you do, you'll come to when you're at zero gravity.

Once above the undefined line that delineates Earth from space, your craft will arch to a height of 360,000 feet for about four minutes. You will be weightless and have stunning views of Earth's curvature, 1,000 miles in any direction.

And then gravity will beckon the vessel down to Earth, the human bodies within it feeling pressure six times their weight, sort of like a "big, hairy, fat cat sitting on your chest."

Total approximate time: two hours and nine minutes. All this for only $200,000 -- a lot of money to most folks, but a mere fraction of the millions spent by previous space tourists.

(Join us this week when we talk to Virgin's sale rep! That will be on BMU #79 for 11/19/07)

Spaceport America: First Looks at a New Space Terminal

URS Corporation took the wraps off new images that showcase the sprawling main terminal and hangar at the first purpose build Space Port - Spaceport America. Selected from an international field of eleven firms, the winning design is the work of URS Corporation - a large design and engineering enterprise - teamed with Foster + Partners of the United Kingdom, a group with extensive experience in crafting airport buildings. When the 100,000 square-foot (9,290 square-meter) facility is completed it will serve as the primary operating base for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceliner, and also as the headquarters for the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. The design chosen is a low-lying, striking bit of construction that uses natural earth as a berm, and relies on passive energy for heating and cooling, with photovoltaic panels for electricity and water recycling capabilities. A rolling concrete shell acts as a roof with massive windows opening to a view of the runway and spacecraft.

Thanks to Shaun A. Saunders for the post