Virgin Galactic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Virgin Galactic
Type Private
Founded 2004
Headquarters New Mexico, USA
Key people Richard Branson(UK)
Will Whitehorn
Industry Space tourism
Owner(s) Virgin Group
Employees 30
Website www.virgingalactic.com

Virgin Galactic is a company within Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public. Further in the future Virgin Galactic plans to offer orbital spaceflights as well.

Contents

[edit] Spacecraft

SpaceShipOne, the first private space tourism spaceship to fly above the 100-km Kármán line
See also: Scaled Composites
Main article: Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo

[edit] Overview of the spacecraft flights

It is planned that the spacecraft are to be robust and affordable enough to take paying passengers. The craft is projected to be a six passenger, two pilot craft.[1] It is planned to make suborbital flights, with a short period of weightlessness. At around 16 kilometers or 52,000 ft (16,000 m), the rocket will separate when the plane reaches its maximum height. The time from liftoff of the White Knight II booster carrying SpaceShipTwo until the touchdown of SpaceShipTwo after the suborbital flight will be about 2.5 hours. The suborbital flight itself will only be a small fraction of that time. The weightlessness will last approximately 6 minutes.[2] Passengers will be able to release themselves from their seats during these 6 minutes and float around the cabin.[1]

[edit] SpaceShipTwo's performance

SpaceShipTwo will fly a little higher than SpaceShipOne, to a height of 110 km in order to go beyond the defined boundary of space (100 km) and lengthen the experience of weightlessness.[1] The spacecraft will reach around Mach 3 (1000 m/s), which is slightly faster than current fighter jets are capable of attaining, however the spacecraft will not be able to sustain that speed for long periods of time. To re-enter the atmosphere SpaceShipTwo folds its wings up, and then returns them to their original position for a smooth and gentle glide back onto the runway. The craft has a very limited cross-range capability and therefore has to land in the area where it started.

[edit] Competition

See also: Private spaceflight

There are numerous other companies actively working on commercial passenger suborbital spaceflight. Virgin Galactic's most likely competitors include EADS Astrium, Rocketplane Limited, Inc., Space Adventures, and XCOR Aerospace.[citation needed]

[edit] Fleet

Virgin Galactic is planning to have a fleet of two White Knight Two motherships and five or more SpaceShipTwo tourist suborbital spacecraft.[3]

WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft
Virgin MotherShips
  1. VMS Eve [4]
  2. VMS Spirit of Steve Fossett [5] [6] [7]
SpaceShipTwo suborbital spacecraft
Virgin SpaceShips
  1. VSS Enterprise [8]
  2. VSS Voyager [9] [10]
  3. unnamed
  4. unnamed
  5. unnamed

[edit] Base

Test launches are planned to take place from the Mojave Spaceport, where Scaled Composites is constructing the spacecraft. Virgin Galactic expects that initial passenger flights will take place there, as well.[11]

An international architectural competition was held for the design of Virgin Galactic's operating base, Spaceport America in New Mexico. The contract was awarded to URS and Foster + Partners architects.[12] Upon the completion of the spaceport, flight operations will transfer from the California desert to the new bases.[11]

Virgin Galactic also announced on April 3, 2008 that in the future they will operate in Europe out of Spaceport Sweden.[13]

Will Whitehorn stated in an interview with Space.co.uk on 29 April 2008 that the company was considering flying from a UK base: RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, during the summer months only.[14] There are also rumours that the base could be located in RAF Machrihanish (Campbeltown, Scotland) or an unnamed location in south-west England.[15]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c "Virgin Galactic". virgingalactic.com. http://www.virgingalactic.com/htmlsite/faq.php. Retrieved on 2008-02-10. 
  2. ^ "Captain Kirk signs on for Virgin Galactic Space Ride". soultek.com. http://www.soultek.com/space_privatization/Virgin_Galactic_Captain_Kirk_and_spaceshipone.htm. Retrieved on 2008-02-14. 
  3. ^ Malik, Tariq (2008-01-23). "Virgin Galactic Unveils Suborbital Spaceliner Design". SPACE.com. http://www.space.com/news/080123-virgingalactic-ss2-design.html. Retrieved on 2008-01-25. 
  4. ^ "Spaceship Company unveils design of SpaceShipTwo". Pravda Online. 2008-01-23. http://newsfromrussia.com/news/science/23-01-2008/103605-spacecraft-0. Retrieved on 2008-01-25. 
  5. ^ Branson, Richard (10 October 2007). "My Friend, Steve Fossett". Time. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1670216,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-10-31. 
  6. ^ Burack, Ari (10 October 2007). "Sir Richard Branson, black robed as Father Richard for zany party inaugurating Virgin American flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas". San Francisco Sentinel. http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=5903. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  7. ^ Nizza, Mike (2007-10-11). "The Legend of Steve Fossett Takes Root". New York Times. http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/the-legend-of-steve-fossett-takes-root/index.html?ex=1349841600&en=45eab0da4e07992c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. 
  8. ^ "Virgin boss in space tourism bid". BBC News. 27 September 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3693020.stm. Retrieved on 2007-10-31. 
  9. ^ Wilson, Simon (2005-01-21). "Will space tourism ever take off?". MoneyWeek. http://www.moneyweek.com/file/2333/space-tourism.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. 
  10. ^ "One small step for space tourism... Private spaceflight". The Economist. 16 December 2004. http://economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_PVDDNPS&CFID=652299&CFTOKEN=40feddda82a83b6-F677FAB6-B27C-BB00-0143FB2BB9733AFB. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. 
  11. ^ a b "Virgin Galactic FAQ: Where Will I Fly From?". http://www.virgingalactic.com/htmlsite/overview.php. Retrieved on 2008-06-26. 
  12. ^ "Foster + Partners". fosterandpartners.com. http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/1613/Default.aspx. Retrieved on 2008-02-17. 
  13. ^ "News Release 03.04.2008 / Spaceport Sweden and Virgin Galactic". http://www.virgingalactic.com/htmlsite/news.php. Retrieved on 2008-06-26. 
  14. ^ "Will Whitehorn (Virgin Galactic) and Heather MacRae (Venture Thinking) at the RAeS". space.co.uk. http://www.space.co.uk/DataBank/VideoGallery/VideoPlayer/tabid/384/VideoId/37/Will-Whitehorn-Virgin-Galactic-And-Heather-MacRae-Venture-Thinking-At-The-RAeS.aspx. Retrieved on 2008-07-26. 
  15. ^ "SNP backs Lossiemouth as first UK space port". http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/snp-backs-lossiemouth-as-first-uk-space-port-497157. Retrieved on 2008-12-26. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
The Spaceship Company
Companies SpaceShipOne hanging under White Knight
People
Ships
Sequence
Tier One (11P · 13P · 14P · 15P · 16P · 17P) · Tier 1b · Tier Two
Places
See also...
v • d • e
Space tourism (see list of private spaceflight companies)
Major private companies
Organizations
Successful spacecraft
Living in space
Major Space competitions
v • d • e
Virgin Group
General
Travel
Publishing
and entertainment
Retail
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Galactic"
Personal tools