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Colorado Springs (AFP)
Beth Moses was in the cabin of a Virgin Galactic spacecraft when he climbed Feb. 22 atop the Mojave Desert in California, crossing the border from the atmosphere into space and becoming the # 1 39, one of the few non-astronauts to have achieved the feat.
The Virgin employee, who will now train the company's future tourists in space, has carried out the vertical climb propelled by a rocket at a speed three times greater than that of the sound.
"No, not at all, not at all."
"I did not expect to have any and I do not have any."
Virgin Galactic is one of two companies, with Blue Origin owned by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who now hopes to send tourists into space for a few minutes.
The race of Moses allowed the ship to climb up to 90 km – a technical space, as defined by the United States, but well below, for example, the International Space Station which orbits at a height of 410 km.
Until now, only astronauts and experienced pilots had reached this extreme environment, raising questions about the physical effects of the trip on ordinary pbadengers, recruits from space.
"It's a very intense experience," explained one of Virgin's pilots, Mike "Sooch" Masucci. At first, the spacecraft begins a few seconds of free fall after being released from a carrier plane at an altitude of 13 km.
Then the ship's rocket engine is fired and the acceleration goes up to 3G, three times the gravity of the Earth, which is not that difficult, according to Sooch. "It's like someone is pushing you on the chest."
After about a minute, the engine turns off and "it's complete silence," said the pilot.
"At that point, we'll make a phone call to the booth to say," Welcome to weightlessness, you're sure to be off the hook, "said Dave Mackay, chief pilot of Virgin, Scotland-born.
– A very good footwork –
Virgin Galactic customers, hundreds of whom have already paid $ 250,000, have been waiting for years for scheduled flights to space, but the program has experienced delays, particularly after an accident in the United States. the air killed a co-pilot in 2014.
The company, owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, is building a spaceport in New Mexico, where the ship will be based and where the pbadengers, called by the company "astronauts", will participate in a three-day workday . Training session.
The first day of their training, said Beth Moses, customers will be on board an acrobatic flight so they can experience "good times". The goal is: "When they go into space, they will not wonder what just happened?"
The experience in space will only last a few minutes (Virgin will not give the exact duration before the end of the test flights).
"Anytime, any adult can have a hand or a foot on the edge of the cabin" to stabilize, said Moses.
Back at their seat could be a little more acrobatic: "This requires a bit of choreography and field training."
In the worst case scenario, she adds, it will not be dangerous to get up from her seat during the descent, which will cause a slip to her landing strip.
In February, Richard Branson told AFP that he was boarding for a flight before July, but he was often a victim of optimism.
"He will always dream that the theft can take place, but there are still many other exciting milestones to go through before," said a Virgin spokeswoman diplomatically.
? AFP 2019
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