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The two leading companies in the pursuit of space tourism claim that they are just a few months away from their first passenger flights out of this world – although no one has set a definite date.
Virgin Galactic, founded The British billionaire Richard Branson and Blue Origin, the creator of Amazon Jeff Bezos, are preparing to be the first to complete their tests – the two companies using a radically different technology.
– Moments of Weightlessness –
Neither Virgin nor Blue Origin passengers will be in orbit around the Earth: their weightless experience will only last a few minutes. It's a very different offer from the first space tourists, who paid tens of millions of dollars to get to the International Space Station (ISS) in the 2000s.
Having paid a Much cheaper ticket with Virgin, still unknown with Blue Origin – the new tour of space tourists will be propelled tens of miles into the atmosphere, before descending to Earth. By comparison, the ISS is orbiting 400 miles (400 miles) from our planet
The goal is to approach or cross the imaginary line marking where space begins – be the Karman line, 100 kilometers or 62 miles, or the 50-mile limit recognized by the US Air Force.
At this altitude, the sky seems dark and the curvature of the earth can be seen clearly.
See also: Tickets for space flights for sale in 2019
– Virgin Galactic –
With Virgin Galactic, six passengers and two pilots are boarded on SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity, which looks like a private jet.
The VSS Unity will be attached to a carrier spacecraft – the WhiteKnightTwo – from which it will then detach itself at approximately 49,000 feet (15,000 meters). Once released, the spacecraft will launch its rocket and move towards the sky.
Then the passengers will float in weightlessness for several minutes, before returning
The descent is slowed down by a system of "feathers" that sees the tail of the gear rotate, as if it were arched, before returning to normal and hovering at Virgin's "spaceport" in the New Mexico desert. In total, the mission lasts between 90 minutes and two hours. At a May 29 test in the Mojave Desert in California, the spacecraft reached an altitude of 21 miles, heading for space.
In October 2014, the Virgin spacecraft collapsed in flight due to a piloting error. . The tests were then resumed with a new machine
The company also concluded an agreement to open a second "spaceport" at the airport Tarente-Grottaglie, in the south of the country.
Branson in May told BBC Radio 4 that he hoped to be one of the first passengers in the next 12 months. About 650 people make up the rest of the waiting list, said Virgin at AFP
– Blue Origin –
Blue Origin, meanwhile, has developed a closer system of the traditional rocket: the New Shepard. During this trip, six passengers take place in a "capsule" attached to the top of a 60-foot long rocket. After the launch, it detaches and continues its trajectory several kilometers to the sky. At a test on April 29, the capsule was 66 miles.
After a few minutes of weightlessness, during which passengers can admire the view through large windows, the capsule gradually falls back onto the ground with three large parachutes and retrofuses that slow down the spacecraft
[19659002] Until now, the tests have been done only with the help of mannequins at the West Origin Texas site.
But one of its directors, Rob Meyerson, said last June the tests would come "soon".
Meanwhile, another company official, Yu Matsutomi, said at a conference on Wednesday that the first tests with passengers would take place "at the end of this year," according to Space News.
Read also: luxury hotel will be 200 miles and $ 792,000 a night
– What's Next? –
SpaceX and Boeing are developing their own capsules to transport NASA astronauts, likely in 2020, after delays – a major investment that companies will likely offset by offering private passenger flights.
If you're looking to go into space, you'll have quadrupled the menu of options you've had before, "AFP Phil Larson, deputy dean of the University of Toronto, told AFP. Colorado, Boulder's College of Engineering and Applied Science
. , the Russian firm that manufactures Soyuz rockets is studying the possibility of bringing tourists back to the ISS. And an American start-up called Orion Span announced earlier this year that she hoped to place a luxury space hotel into orbit in a few years – but the project is still in its infancy
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