New York Times
April 5th, 2018 “Virgin Galactic Conducts 1st Powered Flight of New Spaceship” By The Associated Press Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/04/05/us/ap-us-virgin-galactic.html This article is about one of the new commercial space companies, but this one is under the Virgin name. The company is Virgin Galactic, they are a company who has now re-entered the scene after a fatal incident in 2014. The company aims to have tourist flights go into the low reaches of space. This once again is an exciting time for space travel, but for the public this time. The dream that anyone can see the stars up close is slowly becoming more and more of a reality. It seems that all of these dreams are being made real, not by the government but by the million and billionaires of our world. The goal of Virgin Galactic is different than most, they aim to continue suborbital flights and have multiple planes running at a time. A suborbital flight is when the aircraft flies from the ground, to just into space, and comes back while not going one full orbit of the earth. These planes would all be able to fly and be reused for multiple flights, this will bring down the cost immensely. The rocket has been adapted over the years to be much safer, and have a larger rate of success. The rocket was launched from New Mexico, this is where they plan to have a sort of airport in the future. This is a fairly recent event happening about a week ago. The rocket is technically two aircraft, the WhiteKnightTwo and the SpaceShipTwo. WhiteKnightTwo is a custom-built, four-engine, dual-fuselage jet aircraft, designed to carry SpaceShipTwo up to an altitude of ~50,000 feet. SpaceShipTwo is a reusable, winged spacecraft designed to carry eight people (including two pilots) into space safely and with high frequency. The rocket launches and carries it’s payload at supersonic speeds (Mach 1.87 or 1434 mph) it achieves the speeds in it’s 30 second burn. The whole company was halted in 2014 when a launch went south and the co pilot released the rocket too early, ending in the rocket tumbling and eventually exploding. I’m personally extremely excited because this goal is much more quickly achievable, rather than SpaceX’s multiplanet idea. Although SpaceX is making very quick progress at getting a flight to a pedestrian around the moon, this would cost tens of millions of dollars while Virgin’s flight would be only in the hundreds of thousands initially. I’m also really glad that they started again on this goal of having these planes constantly flying, it would’ve been very disheartening if they stopped completely. I will comment on Elena and Nia's blogs.
7 Comments
Nia Asbill
4/10/2018 07:30:55 pm
I think that is a really neat way to advance domestic space travel and make it more affordable. Do you think that the issue was simply a mistake on the pilot's part, or that the rocket itself could be an issue? I think that the halt on the project could make things more difficult, especially if it's treated as a constant danger.
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Cole Lampro
4/12/2018 03:18:10 pm
This is really cool that they are starting up again. I think it will be really cool to go into space. I also agree with you on how the expediences will cost and how much they are making rapid progress.
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Chloe Reeves
4/12/2018 04:29:42 pm
While I do agree that domestic space travel is really cool I do wonder how they are going to make this affordable enough for people to actually purchase a ride. Is the finical gain at this time really worth spending so much money just for a few people to see space? I think something like this might be a little bit ahead of it's time. Domestic space travel might actually be more profitable in the future if we found a more effective and efficient form of energy to power our rockets.
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Simon Cross
4/12/2018 07:10:49 pm
Way cool! Probably super expensive to start with but I would love to go to space sometime before I die. That is my goal. Very cool article.
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Mariela A.
4/12/2018 07:11:51 pm
I think that is a cool and neat way to advance domestic space travel and it is always really good that their making in affordable. Do you believe they can do better then how they did a few years ago?
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Elena Seitzinger
4/13/2018 12:08:30 am
I think it's amazing how only half a century ago we were in awe that a single man was sent into space and now here we are, so close to making it something that people can buy as simply as buying an overpriced plane ticket.
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Sofia Mertz
4/13/2018 11:14:45 am
I think it is actually insane that we have drastically advanced so much in technology, and the future of space exploration is no exception. Where do you think we will be in 30 years with Elon's plans?
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