Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s spinoff company to his successful Virgin airline, has revealed plans for a new “private” spaceship designed for “consumer space flight.” The new spaceship has been named White Knight Two, and is scheduled for test flights to take place this summer according to Virgin representatives.
InformationWeek.com is reporting that the new Virgin spaceship is based on the technology of the Ansari X prize winning, “SpaceShipOne,” which successfully completed three space flights to win a $10 million prize in the Ansari competition last year.
Virgin Galactic claims that the new Private spaceship design will be “environmentally benign,” and that the craft will be constructed from a light weight carbon composite. The ship will use four Pratt and Whitney aircraft engines to launch into sub-orbital space flight, and will carry a complement of up to eight astronauts and a minimal payload.
In a statement released last Wednesday, a Virgin spokesman said, “while the first priority for Virgin Galactic is developing the market for human space flight, the company is already assessing the potential for unmanned launch capability.” The company has already pre-qualified over 200 “consumer astronauts” and accepted registrations of interest from nearly 85,000 others.
Potential passengers must undergo complete medical evaluations, as well as lengthy centrifuge training, to cope with the g-force and low gravity conditions in space. Two prospective passengers have already completed the medical and centrifuge training at the NASTAR facility in Pennsylvania.
Besides the debut of the new Private spaceship, Virgin Galactic also unveiled the final design for their new spaceport, which will be located in New Mexico. The “Spaceport America” will take advantage of geothermal and solar power to minimize it’s environmental footprint, according to Virgin Galactic officials.
While to many, Richard Branson’s dream of a spacebound airline, or “spaceline” may seem impractical and made of the stuff of daydreams, Branson takes a hard-nosed realist position about his fledgling commercial spaceflight company. Virgin Galactic’s goal is to bring consumer spaceflight to the masses, with regularly scheduled flights beginning within the next five years.
Whether Virgin Galactic is able to succeed as a viable consumer spaceflight agency or not is the subject of much speculation, but Branson certainly has a reputation for taking on lofty goals and achieving them.
Branson’s Virgin Airlines was all but laughed at by industry analysts when it debuted, competing against the giant British Airways for transatlantic air passengers between the UK and the U. S. But no one’s laughing these days, as Virgin has become a force to be reckoned with in commercial aviation, and garnered a sizable share of the market.
With a little luck, perhaps Branson’s Virgin Galactic can also succeed were others have dared not to venture: out in space.
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