SpaceShipTwo hopes to make suborbital space travel routine
Luca Cernuschi
Issue date: 10/10/06 Section: Space Technology
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Following the success obtained by SpaceShipOne in 2004, Virgin Galactic announced the start of the development of SpaceShipTwo.
The spacecraft, scheduled for completion in 2008, aims to be able to carry a total of eight people - two pilots and six passengers - at a height of roughly 122 kilometers (400,000 feet), beating its predecessor's altitude by nearly nine percent.
Head of Virgin Group, parent company of Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson presented a full-size model of the craft at the Javits exhibition center in New York on Sept. 28.
It revealed a cabin the size of a Gulfstream V jet and adorned with reclining seats not unlike those in modern commercial aircraft.
Burt Rutan, designer of both the spacecraft, won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in October 2004.
The flight set milestones for having built the first privately-funded spaceship to fly above 100 km and to exceed Mach 3, as well as for constructing the first privately-sponsored reusable sub-orbital vehicle.
With SpaceShipTwo, recently renamed VSS Enterprise, Rutan will provide passengers with several minutes of weightlessness during a two-and-a-half-hour trip without requiring them to wear pressurized spacesuits for a $200,000 fee, according to Earthtimes.org.
Indeed, the company hopes to fly 500 passengers within a year of development completion, and is planning various programs - such as reality TV shows - to entice potential clients.
As it stands, one of the pioneers of this program will be British businessman Alan Watts, who will be required - like all other passengers - to undergo three days of training before the flight itself.
The VSS Enterprise is being constructed in the Mojave Desert, California, and will use the spaceport there as its launch site throughout 2008.
However, Branson plans to relocate to the $225 million Southwest Regional Spaceport, New Mexico, starting in 2009.
Branson does not rule out the possibility of constructing new sites in places such as Florida, Scotland and the Middle East either, since his company is expected to operate at least five spaceships, and is considering developing a fully-orbiting craft, SpaceShipThree, in the near future.
The spacecraft, scheduled for completion in 2008, aims to be able to carry a total of eight people - two pilots and six passengers - at a height of roughly 122 kilometers (400,000 feet), beating its predecessor's altitude by nearly nine percent.
Head of Virgin Group, parent company of Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson presented a full-size model of the craft at the Javits exhibition center in New York on Sept. 28.
It revealed a cabin the size of a Gulfstream V jet and adorned with reclining seats not unlike those in modern commercial aircraft.
Burt Rutan, designer of both the spacecraft, won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in October 2004.
The flight set milestones for having built the first privately-funded spaceship to fly above 100 km and to exceed Mach 3, as well as for constructing the first privately-sponsored reusable sub-orbital vehicle.
With SpaceShipTwo, recently renamed VSS Enterprise, Rutan will provide passengers with several minutes of weightlessness during a two-and-a-half-hour trip without requiring them to wear pressurized spacesuits for a $200,000 fee, according to Earthtimes.org.
Indeed, the company hopes to fly 500 passengers within a year of development completion, and is planning various programs - such as reality TV shows - to entice potential clients.
As it stands, one of the pioneers of this program will be British businessman Alan Watts, who will be required - like all other passengers - to undergo three days of training before the flight itself.
The VSS Enterprise is being constructed in the Mojave Desert, California, and will use the spaceport there as its launch site throughout 2008.
However, Branson plans to relocate to the $225 million Southwest Regional Spaceport, New Mexico, starting in 2009.
Branson does not rule out the possibility of constructing new sites in places such as Florida, Scotland and the Middle East either, since his company is expected to operate at least five spaceships, and is considering developing a fully-orbiting craft, SpaceShipThree, in the near future.
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