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Virgin Galactic is offering free travel to suborbital space to two general public competition winners.
The company announced a partnership Sunday, July 11 with the charity fundraising platform Omaze for the contest, which will put two people on a space flight slated for launch in early 2022. The news came shortly after the founder from billionaire Virgin Group Richard branson and five other people were launched (and landed) safely from suborbital space travel aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spacecraft.
You can enter the competition here; payment is not necessary to participate. In a pre-recorded video released by Virgin Galactic on Sunday, Branson explained how he had had “the most incredible experience of Earth from above” and that he was “thrilled” to give the opportunity to others.
Related: Virgin Galactic launches Richard Branson into space in first full crew flight
After: “Welcome to the dawn of a new space age,” says Branson
“You will be brought to meet me for a private tour of Spaceport America, where we will prepare you to be among the first to experience a Virgin Galactic spaceflight,” explained Branson. Spaceport America is VSS Unity’s take-off and landing area, approximately 88 kilometers from Las Cruces, New Mexico.
In Branson’s experience, you will experience approximately four minutes of weightlessness aboard the VSS Unity, which takes off under the wings of the carrier aircraft VMS Eve and reaches a maximum altitude of over 80 km. It is below the traditionally defined Kármán Line, which is 100 km high, but above the space demarcation boundary recognized by NASA, the United States military and the Federal Aviation Administration.
After: How Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Works (Infographic)
Eligible entrants to the new competition must meet many requirements on the Omaze website, some of the main ones including being at least 18 years old, be from a global jurisdiction whose participation is not prohibited, and provide proof of ‘a vaccination against the coronavirus.
As a reminder that spaceflight is inherently dangerous, any participant must also release the contest holders from “any liability, loss or damage or expense resulting from, or in connection with, participating in any experience or accepting, using or misuse of any cost. “
By August 31, all funds raised will go to the Space for Humanity association, which seeks to democratize access to space. His advisers include Andrew Aldrin, director of the Aldrin Space Institute at the Florida Institute of Technology, and son of Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, as well as Alan Stern, a scientist known to be the mission’s principal investigator. New Horizons to Pluto and other Kuiper Belt Destinations.
Virgin Galactic has aimed to bring tourists to space since its founding in 2004, and seats for space have sold, most recently, for $ 250,000 each. Today’s Branson suborbital space flight and planned July 20 getaway for billionaire and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, along with apparent competition between the two companies for customer attention, has sparked a public debate on how to increase tourist access to space. among people who cannot afford such large sums.
That said, a selection of lucky people from ordinary means have been invited to participate in tourist space flights so far. Mercury 13 aviator Wally Funk will fly alongside Bezos and other passengers on July 20, while two competition winners and a childhood cancer survivor will fly with billionaire Jared Isaacman on the Inspiration4 mission to Earth orbit that will launch later this year aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
Employees of space companies may also have the chance to see space, such as the three Virgin Galactic employees who flew alongside Branson on Sunday, or the entities that partner with Axiom Space, which will send its first full space flight. private to the International Space Station in 2022 on a Crew Dragon, if all goes according to plan.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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