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Billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos will travel to the last frontier in their spaceship during July.
On July 11 at 14:30 GMT, the founder of the Virgin Group Branson, along with two pilots and three other passengers, will depart from Virgin Galactic’s operational base in Spaceport America in the Mexican desert. Its crew will reach an altitude of about 89km and will endure a weightless weight for a few minutes before making the descent back to Earth.
Nine days later, on July 20, Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, will explode from a reusable rocket on the west Texas launchpad along with five others, including his brother Mark. Its crew will reach an altitude of about 100 km.
Reaching the edge of space
Branson is known for his reputation as a magnate of great courage, with a legacy of sea and balloon expedition expeditions. It will promote the rapid flowering of its astro-tourism by projecting it into suborbital space.
Sunday’s launch will be the first space flight with Virgin Galactic Holding Inc.’s (SPCE.N) first equipment.
The spacecraft will be released by two fuselage carriers called VMS Eve (named after Branson’s mother) at an altitude of 50,000 feet (15,240 meters), where Unity will be released, and will be propelled by the rocket during an almost vertical ascent. The outer limit of the Earth’s atmosphere.
At the summit of a flight 89 km from Mexico’s New Desert, the crew will spend a few minutes of light weight before returning to Earth. The flight is expected to last about 90 minutes and will be broadcast live.
Virgin’s Unity 22 mission consists of the spacecraft’s 22nd test flight of the spacecraft and the company’s fourth mission beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
Although the mission is seen as a milestone in helping citizen rocket travel become a major commercial business, spaceflight remains an inherently risky endeavor.
The first prototype of a Virgin Galactic rocket plane crashed in a test flight across the Mojave Desert in California in 2014, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.
Branson’s Sunday flight beats rival Bezos and Blue Origin company, Blue Origin, for nine days in what it calls a “billionaire space race”.
Bezos, the former founder and CEO of the online retail giant Amazon.com, plans to board the New Shepard suborbital rocket spacecraft, New Shepard, on July 20.
Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, along with fellow billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk SpaceX, are competing head-to-head in the emerging tourism space business, though Musk has had a great start.
SpaceX, which plans to send its first civilian crew (without Musk) into orbit in September, has already launched a large number of cargo and astronauts into the International Space Station.
(Al Jazeera)Who is on board?
VSS Unity has two pilots, Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, who will control the ignition and shutdown of the ship’s rocket engine, and who will activate the “feathered” tail maneuver of the re-entry vehicle.
The other three specialists on the mission are Beth Moses, the company’s chief astronaut professor; Colin Bennett, chief operating engineer at Virgin Galactic; and Sirisha Bandla, research operations, and vice president of government affairs.
Virgin says it plans two more test flights of the spacecraft before commercial service begins next year.
The company said it has received more than 600 flight bookings, about $ 250,000 per ticket, but expects to eventually lower the cost of each seat to $ 40,000.
Institutes like the USAF in the US define a space of 80 km (50 miles), which is different from the International Aeronautical Federation (IAF) which defines 100 km above sea level. The Karman line is defined at almost 100km. Control of NASA’s mission defines the beginning of space as 122 km (76 miles).
Virgin Galactic will cover 89 km and will travel 100 km above sea level at Blue Origin.
It is usually attributed to the fact that space alone is not enough when it is sufficient to maintain the speed of the suborbital flying ship.
(Al Jazeera)
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