Branson's Virgin Galactic

Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4365612.stm

Clear skies for Virgin spaceliner


Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has
collected $10m in deposits from people wanting a
quick ride beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Another 34,000 would-be astronauts have
registered for rides aboard a commercial version
of the experimental Ansari X Prize winner SpaceShipOne.

The cost to experience four to five minutes of
weightlessness is about $200,000 (£113,242).

The project was threatened earlier this year by US export control regulations.

Last year, SpaceShipOne completed two sub-orbital
spaceflights in a week to claim the $10m Ansari X-Prize.

Virgin Galactic is paying SpaceShipOne designer
Burt Rutan's firm to build a fleet of five
vessels for suborbital spaceflights. Test flights
are on schedule to begin in 2007, with commercial
operations to begin a year later.

"At the moment, we don't see any hurdles," said
Virgin Galactic president Whitehorn.

Ship size expands

Since the project's announcement just before
SpaceShipOne's prize-winning flight from Mojave,
California, Sir Richard and Mr Rutan decided to
expand the size of the follow-on commercial
version of the vehicle, informally known as SpaceShipTwo.

A final design is scheduled to be announced
before the end of the year. But the plan now is
for each ship to be capable of carrying six or
seven passengers and two pilots, said Mr
Whitehorn, who was in Washington, DC this week
for a series of meetings and speaking engagements.

"We're very happy with it," Mr Whitehorn said.

The spaceships will be about the size of a
Gulfstream Five business jet and like
SpaceShipOne, will piggyback a ride atop a larger
airplane before its rocket engines ignite to travel beyond the atmosphere.

SpaceShipOne made three trips to suborbital space
- defined as 100km (328,000 feet) - including a
record-breaking lunge to 367,442 feet (112km) or
69.6 miles above the planet's surface.

Mr Rutan's firm plans to build two mother ships,
each about the size of a 737, to carry SpaceShipTwo vehicles into the sky.

Joy rides

To give passengers a bit more thrill for their
pricey rides, SpaceShipTwo may be carted a couple
of hundred miles away from the take-off sites
before being released for launch. That would
enable riders to take in a more diverse view of Earth-in-the-round.

Most important, however, is to maximize the time
during which passengers experience microgravity.

"When we asked people about what they wanted in a
suborbital spaceflight the top three things were
weightlessness, weightlessness and weightlessness," Mr Whitehorn said.

The seating compartments on SpaceShipTwo are
being designed so that passengers can float
around a bit while tethered to their seats.

Initially, Virgin Galactic plans for all flights
to take off and land in the United States, Mr
Whitehorn said. In addition to flying from the
Mojave Airport, where Mr Rutan's firm is based,
the company is looking at sites in New Mexico and Florida.

Export issues

The project was threatened earlier this year by
US export control regulations, which prohibited
British participants from even looking at designs
produced by Mr Rutan's firm, Scaled Composites.

Virgin Galactic however finally received a
licence and that not only cleared the way for
full participation in the project, but also
enabled the firm to become a part-owner of a new
venture, called The SpaceShip Company.

This firm plans to market and license
SpaceShipTwo technology to other companies that want to buy the vehicles.

"We see this is a good precursor for the future
as we expand into orbital flight," Mr Whitehorn said.