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Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson flew his first passenger aboard a spaceship powered by a rocket.
This flight is part of a multi-company effort to usher in an era of frequent and safe suborbital space tourism, in which vehicles can fly high enough to briefly enter space, provide zero-gravity minutes, and then return to ground.
On Friday, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, named VSS Unity, did just that. The unit took off from the ground under the wings of a double-body mothership called WhiteKnightTwo. At the correct altitude, the vehicle fell from its mother ship, fired a rubber fueled rocket engine and climbed over the Earth.
The unit accelerated to about three times the speed of sound and reached an altitude of 55.87 miles, or 89.9 kilometers, according to Virgin Galactic. It's about 10 times the cruising altitude of a typical passenger plane. This is the second flight to break through the border that the US government sees as a limit of space.
Virgin Galactic's first passenger was not a tourist who had bought a $ 250,000 ticket, although that was the case. Beth Moses, chief astronaut instructor of the company, tested the crew cabin and suffered several minutes of zero gravity inside. The company says Moses is the first person to fly as a passenger (not a pilot) aboard a commercial spaceship.
"The crew enjoyed an amazing view of the Earth from the dark skies of space and, for several minutes in zero gravity … Beth was free to complete a number of test evaluation points of the cabin, "said Virgin Galactic in a press release. "Human validation of data previously collected via sensors, as well as live testing of other physical elements from inside the cabin, are essential to providing a safe but enjoyable customer experience." . "
However, another billionaire interested in space tourism – Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and aerospace company Blue Origin – has questioned Virgin Galactic's capabilities earlier this week.
"One of the problems that Virgin Galactic will eventually face is that they do not fly over the Kármán line.Not yet.The vehicle is not quite capable," he said. Bezos at an event at Wings Club New York. Tuesday.
Bezos said that not to go past this point would leave "asterisks" next to the names of space flyers.
What is the Kármán line and why is Blue Origin targeting it?
There is no officially recognized global boundary to determine where the Earth ends and where space begins. This month, researchers have announced that the fringes of the Earth's atmosphere extend over 150,000 kilometers beyond the moon.
Nevertheless, the atmospheric pressure of the Earth drops considerably at high altitude, and the wing-based lift begins to dry up if a vehicle reaches tens of kilometers high. NASA and the US Air Force believe that the demarcation between pilots and astronauts is at an altitude of 50 miles.
But Bezos said in a conversation animated by Space News's Jeff Foust that "for most countries in the world", "the space boundary is set to 100 km" or 62 km high.
This boundary bears the name of Theodore von Kármán who, in his book "The Wind and Beyond", said that above 57 miles of altitude, "there is more than To help lift the load. " The World Air Sport Federation has taken this line 5 miles higher to mark where the space begins.
Read more: The space between the Earth and the Moon is mind-boggling. This graph reveals how big it is and what is happening.
Bezos said that he thought Virgin Galactic should find how to get above the Kármán line.
"We fly up to 106 kilometers," he added. By "us," Bezos was referring to Blue Origin, which has developed a fully reusable rocket-space capsule system called New Shepard.
The assault rocket launches the capsule on a ballistic trajectory (from top to bottom), then returns to Earth and lands, allowing it to be refueled. Meanwhile, the elegant capsule of the crew continues to climb, providing passengers with around four minutes of weightlessness.
Read more: The list of SpaceX competitors is expanding – here are 9 futuristic rockets in preparation for the new race to space
New Shepard was designed to break the border of internationally recognized space, Bezos said, in order to dispel any doubt about the status.
"Our mission has always been to fly over the Kármán line because we did not want there to be an asterisk next to your name to indicate if you are an astronaut," he said. -he declares.
Bezos added that Blue Origin planned to launch its first characters on New Shepard imminently.
"It's the first time I say" this year, "" he said. "In recent years, I say" next year "."
A series of firsts for suborbital space tourism
A representative of Virgin Galactic did not immediately respond to a request for response to comments from Bezos.
But the Branson space tourism group claims to have recorded premieres.
"Today's flight has marked several other firsts for the industry," Virgin Galactic said in its statement. "This flight was the first time that a non-pilot was flying aboard a commercial spaceship and it was the first time that a crew member was floating freely without restrictions. in weightlessness in space aboard a commercial spaceship; it was the first time Dave Mackay became the first born astronaut in Scotland. "
Virgin Galactic shared a video of the launch on Friday:
The flight also marked the fifth consecutive flight of a company's SpaceShipTwo vehicle, a supersonic flight – a welcome change for the company. In October 2014, one of his pilots died and another was seriously injured during the flight burst of the "VSS Enterprise" SpaceShipTwo vehicle.
"Stealing the same vehicle safely in the round-trip space twice in just over two months, while expanding the flight envelope, testifies to the unique ability we have built," said Branson in a statement.
"Having Beth in the cabin today and starting to make our customer journey as flawless as the spacecraft itself, brings a tremendous sense of anticipation and enthusiasm to anyone who is eager to live the day. The coming months promise to be the most exciting to date. "
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