Virgin Galactic Considering Hypersonic Airline Travel
In principle, Virgin Galactic and NASA’s Ames research group would work together to develop hybrid rocket motors and the study of vehicles that travel faster than Mach 5. Dan Coughlin from NASA’s Marshall Flight Center will work with Virgin Galactic. With these kinds of speeds, Virgin could offer customers trips across the world that would only take a couple of hours.
Until now, Virgin Galactic has been working with Scaled Composites to develop a larger version of SpaceShipOne, the vehicle that won the X-prize in October, 2004. Adventurous space tourists will pay about $200,000 USD to fly on SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of 100km and enjoy 6 minutes of weightlessness.
There just aren’t a lot of details right now. I’ll see what else I can dig up.
Original Source: Flightglobal article
Recent Posts
Are Fast Radio Bursts Caused by Interstellar Objects Crashing Into Neutron Stars?
Astronomers have only been aware of fast radio bursts for about two decades. These are…
Here’s How to Weigh Gigantic Filaments of Dark Matter
How do you weigh one of the largest objects in the entire universe? Very carefully,…
How Could Astronauts Call for Help from the Moon?
Exploring the Moon poses significant risks, with its extreme environment and hazardous terrain presenting numerous…
There Was a 15 Minute Warning Before Tonga Volcano Exploded
Volcanoes are not restricted to the land, there are many undersea versions. One such undersea…
Main Sequence and White Dwarf Binaries are Hiding in Plain Sight
Some binary stars are unusual. They contain a main sequence star like our Sun, while…
What a Misplaced Meteorite Told Us About Mars
11 million years ago, Mars was a frigid, dry, dead world, just like it is…