If he did, he would make history as the world's first commercial astronaut. He had 80 seconds to exceed the speed of sound and begin the climb to a target no civilian pilot had ever reached. It does not store any personal data.The historic race that reawakened the promise of manned spaceflight.Īlone in a Spartan black cockpit, test pilot Mike Melvill rocketed toward space.
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Branson spaceship series#
The company has already launched numerous cargo payloads and astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA in a series of highly publicised space flights. The Swiss-based investment bank UBS has estimated the potential value of the space tourism market to reach $3 billion annually by 2030.īranson’s successful Unity spaceflight is set to be followed by a flight manned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin space tourism venture.īezos is set to fly to the edge of space in his own suborbital rocket, the New Shepard, later this month.īranson has insisted that the two billionaires are friendly rivals and are not engaged in a personal contest to beat the other into space.Ī third player in the space race, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is planning to send its first all-civilian crew into orbit in September this year. Demand from would-be space tourists is apparently high, with several hundred wealthy citizen-astronaut hopefuls already reserving flights to the edge of space. The tickets for the flights will retail at around $250,000 per seat. The entire flight, from takeoff to landing, lasted about an hour.Īccording to News24, Virgin has said that it is planning at least 2 further test flights of the spaceship in the months ahead before starting regular commercial flights in 2022. Here the crew experienced a few minutes of microgravity before it began a gliding descent towards the runway back at Spaceport America. The ship was then shut down at the apex of its ascent.
VMS Eve carried the Unity spaceship to its high-altitude launch point at about 46,000 feet.Īt this point, Unity was released from the mothership and began falling away as the crew ignited its rocket propulsion system, sending it streaking upwards at supersonic speed to the void of space nearly 86 KMs above Earth. VSS Unity, Branson’s shining spacecraft began the journey being carried by the “mothership” jet, VMS Eve – named after Branson’s late mother.
Branson spaceship full#
This latest mission was the first to see the ship carry a full complement of space travellers – two pilots and four passengers, or “mission specialists.” Launching, flying and safely landing the VSS Unity passenger spaceship marked the company’s 22nd test flight of its SpaceShipTwo system, and Virgin Galactic’s 4th crewed mission beyond the planet’s atmosphere.
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