Category: Space Tourism

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The company that aims to be the first “spaceline,” by taking paying passenger to space on a regular basis is also looking at contributing to science, too. Virgin Galactic is looking at the possibility of carrying scientific instruments on board the aircraft that brings its spaceship skyward. Richard Branson is teaming up with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to gather information about atmospheric composition and particularly greenhouse gases. NOAA is interested in flying atmospheric monitoring instruments on the carrier vehicle WhiteKnightTwo, because it will be in regular flight above 50,000 ft for the next year-and-a-half during its test-flight period. “Almost everything NOAA does at the moment is at 25,000ft (7,600m) maximum altitude. It’s quite difficult to find research aircraft that do atmospheric testing above that,” said Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic.

“One of the things that we as an airline operator know is that the tropopause is rising slightly. That has had quite an effect on aircraft flying in the upper atmosphere and the amount of turbulence they get. This is probably related to the mix of greenhouse gases and the levels they are rising to that’s moving the tropopause up,” said Whitehorn to journalists at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Glasgow.

SpaceShipTwo will be carried to about 15,200 m (50,000 ft) by the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft. The spaceship then ignites a rocket engine, taking passengers to a maximum altitude of 110 km (68 miles).

The vehicle would carry three instruments. One is going to measure CO2 and methane in the atmosphere. The second will take “flask samples”, allowing it to test for a much wider range of gases. These samples will be offloaded from the aircraft and taken to NOAA’s laboratories in Boulder, Colorado.

The third experiment will carry a tube sample, which empties of gases on the way up to high altitude and fills up on the way down.

Mr Whitehorn said that when SpaceShipTwo began flying, it could provide NOAA with regular sampling of gases through the outermost region of the atmosphere – known as the ionosphere – up to 110km above Earth.

This would be important for calibrating data from a major satellite mission called the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), which is designed to measure atmospheric carbon. The joint NOAA-NASA mission is due to launch next year.

The early part of the agreement between Virgin Galactic and NOAA is on a “no exchange of funds” basis, said Whitehorn, because it was currently classified as an experimental program.

SpaceShipTwo is currently 60% complete. The company plans to unveil the finished craft next summer. Virgin Galactic said 280 customers have signed up for flights to the edge of space.

Source: BBC

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Early this morning in the Californian Mojave Desert, Richard Branson and Burt Rutan unveiled the completed Virgin Galactic Mothership “Eve,” the first time this highly secretive project has seen the light of day. This is a significant moment for both Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, the company that built Eve, as it shows space tourism is only a heartbeat away. Now we await the completion of SpaceShipTwo that is expected to begin test flights with Eve by 2009.

The rollout represents another major milestone in Virgin Galactic’s quest to launch the world’s first private, environmentally benign, space access system for people, payload and science. – Virgin Galactic rollout press release (July 28th).

Eve is a large aircraft, with a wing span of 140 feet (42.7 meters), constructed from the world’s longest single carbon composite aviation component ever manufactured. Eve is basically a flying wing with two fuselages plus four efficient Pratt and Whitney PW308A engines attached. During operational flight sometime late 2009 or early 2010, it is hoped the mother ship will fly four times a day, carrying SpaceShipTwo up to 50,000 ft (9.5 miles) high. Once the aircraft reaches 50,000 ft, the spaceship will detach and ignite its rocket engines, blasting six fee-paying space tourists and two pilots to an altitude of around 360,000 feet (68 miles). This is considered to be the edge of space, allowing the SpaceShipTwo occupants five minutes of weightlessness before starting their journey back to Earth.

Today’s rollout onto the airstrip of Mojave Air and Space Port was witnessed by government officials, business partners and the future Virgin Galactic space tourists. Eve, named in honour of Branson’s mother, is the first WhiteKnightTwo aircraft of two that are on order with Scaled Composites. A total of five SpaceShipTwo’s are expected to complete the fleet.

Today’s press release also states: “Driven by a demanding performance specification set by Virgin Galactic, WhiteKnightTwo has a unique heavy lift, high altitude capability and an open architecture driven design which provides for maximum versatility in the weight, mass and volume of its payload potential. It has the power, strength and maneuverability to provide for pre space-flight, positive G force and zero G astronaut training as well as a lift capability which is over 30% greater than that represented by a fully crewed SpaceShipTwo.”

Fights with Virgin Galactic currently cost a hefty $200,000, but this ticket price is likely to fall in time. Over 200 tickets have already been sold. Initially, the company is offering sub-orbital space flights, but eventually Branson wants to push one stage further and begin offering tourists orbital space flight. The entrepreneur has even more optimistic ideas for his future space tourist empire including sending people into space during an aurora, space hotels and trips to the Moon. To be honest, I’d be excited to try out that rocket ride into space after the leisurely flight attached to WhiteKnightTwo…

Sources: Virgin Galactic, ITWire

After 660 days in space and 10,000 orbits around Earth, the pioneering inflatable prototype is still going strong. Launched atop a converted intercontinental ballistic missile on July 12th, 2006, the Bigelow Aerospace vision for a space hotel is gradually being realized. The first test was to see whether the design could self-inflate and carry out basic operations automatically, but after nearly two years of travelling 270 million miles (435 million kliometers), the prototype has surpassed all expectations and provides an excellent foundation for the company’s first manned mission in 2011…

Bigelow Aerospace, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, has some huge aspirations. The company was founded in 1999 by hotelier Robert Bigelow in the aim to be the forerunner in the future of space commerce and space hotel designs. In a statement on their project website, the company states, “Bigelow Aerospace is dedicated to developing next-generation crewed space complexes to revolutionize space commerce and open up the final frontier to all of humanity“. Well, it seems the frontier has come a little bit closer after today’s announcement that Genesis I, an unmanned prototype of an inflatable space vessel, has just completed its 10,000th orbit around the Earth.

The company is exploiting an old NASA concept, to keep launch mass and size low, but optimize volume in space. The expandable module concept has a structure that uses a flexible outer shell that allows the module to be “unpacked” or inflated once inserted into orbit. Having an inflatable module may conjure up thoughts of flimsiness or weakness – this is obviously not the case as the prototype pushes on after two years of tests. The inflatable design also allows for a larger volume for astronauts to work and live it, with obvious applications for space tourism and orbital hotels. At first, the expandable module was proposed and designed by NASA for the “Transhab Program”, but it was cancelled, allowing Bigelow Aerospace to take over the project and become sole producer of NASA’s expandable module technologies.

Genesis I was followed by the launch of Genesis II in June 2007. Genesis II is also functioning as designed, but today belongs to the older vehicle. The Genesis prototypes measure 14 feet (4.4 meters) in length and 8 feet (2.5 meters) in diameter; they are one-third scale versions of the company’s future BA-330 modules to be used for manned missions.

In addition to this landmark 10,000th orbit, Genesis 1 has taken over 14,000 images and its highly efficient solar panels have provided continuous power to the ship for 15,840 hours.

Around 2011, Bigelow Aerospace hopes to establish its first crewed space station with its Sundancer module (pictured).

Sources: Bigalow Aerospace, Space.com

Europe’s leading spacecraft manufacturer EADS Astrium, the builders of the Ariane rocket (that launches many of Europe’s space missions), has announced plans to mass produce the next generation of space planes. Developing the design of a single-stage “rocket plane”, the company believes there will be a demand for 10 spacecraft per year when the space tourism idea “takes off”. Astrium won’t be running tourist trips themselves; they will simply supply the hardware to space tourism companies predicting the industry will progress along the same lines of a classical aeronautical business model. Astrium has even released an excellent and inspiring (and realistic!) promotional video simulation of the spacecraft launch and view of space…


Astrium has big plans. As space tourism companies begin to emerge, like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, the technology capable of taking tourists above 100 km into the threshold of space is developing at an accelerated rate.

At first glance, the new Astrium concept looks just like a conventional jet, but this aircraft is different. For the first part of the journey high into Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft uses conventional jets (that require oxygen to function). At about 12 km, the jets will be rendered useless as atmospheric oxygen begins to thin out. At this point rocket engines, supplied by onboard tanks of oxygen and methane, will rumble into operation blasting the craft vertically into space at high velocity. The spacecraft will have covered 60 km in 80 seconds and will have enough momentum to continue into space, breaching the 100 km “lower limit” of space.

Watch the Astrium simulation of a trip on board the spacecraft.

Astrium forecasts a healthy market for their space planes, and although it won’t be in the same league as Boeing or Airbus, it will be a big step for space tourism.

One of the big players in the space tourism market will be Virgin Galactic. Virgin’s business plan is to sell tourist flights as well as develop and maintain their own spacecraft (by partnering with Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites). Astrium’s plans are a lot simpler. They will manufacture the space planes and sell them to space tourism companies. Assuming a similar pattern to classical aerospace business models, there could be many tourist carriers using the same Astrium-class spacecraft.

“It will develop towards a classical aeronautical business model. Someone will build the planes; somebody will operate them; somebody will sell the tickets; somebody will provide the accommodation – like any tourism.” – Robert Laine, chief technical officer (CTO) of EADS (Astrium)

Speaking in London at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, delivering the 99th Kelvin Lecture, Robert Laine, CTO of EADS (Astrium), outlined Astrium’s plan for the future. According to Laine, Astrium’s new space plane is developing quickly, and the aerodynamic structure is undergoing final wind tunnel tests. The Romeo rocket engine has been successful in advanced tests, and has run for 31 seconds. To provide the craft with enough boost to leave the Earth’s atmosphere, it will need to burn for 80 seconds. The oxygen-methane fuel engine will give the spacecraft a high enough velocity (1 km/s) to exit the atmosphere.

About 50% of the starting mass of the plane will be fuel. The preliminary design will have enough room for five people – four tourists, one pilot.

Ultimately the Astrium design is hoped to have a lifetime of 10 years and will be easy to maintain. What makes this design even more interesting is its conventional take-off and landing, plus there is no requirement for a launch vehicle. The craft could be used in conventional airports, but Astrium believes custom-made spaceports will be a better solution to avoid busy air traffic. Laine believes that the Astrium spacecraft can be fully operational within five years of a financing deal being signed.

Although weightlessness is only likely to be three minutes long, the two hour round trip will certainly be exhilarating. The three-G acceleration as the rocket engines kick in will be worth the trip alone!

Keep an eye on Astrium, they may be a close second to manufacturing a space tourist craft after Richard Branson…

Source: BBC

A British engineering company has stepped into the commercial spaceflight arena with an ambitious and inspiring design of a possible airliner of the future. The A2, the design behind the Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies (LAPCAT) project, will carry 300 passengers, will have a range of 20,000 km and will be capable of travelling twice the speed of Concorde – that’s a sustained velocity of Mach 5. It will also be capable of atmospheric and space flight leading to the exciting possibility of becoming a large vehicle shuttling passengers, astronauts and payloads into orbit…

As private enterprise is beginning to see the possibility of profit in spaceflight, more and more rocket, spaceship and aircraft designs are being realised beyond the realms of science fiction. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX bear testament to the opportunities that await commercial transport into space. While Branson’s SpaceShipTwo concept uses a conventional WhiteKnight aircraft to “piggyback” until a maximum altitude is reached before it’s rocket engines propel it into space, Musk’s program depends on the ballistic approach, sending his Falcon rocket into space via a conventional rocket launchpad. The A2 concept is different as it will take off and land like a passenger jet without the need to be helped on its way by another aircraft.

The A2 is an impressive looking craft, and the claim that it may be able to sustain hypersonic flight is impressive. Currently, only astronauts leaving or re-entering the atmosphere travel at hyper sonic velocities, no aircraft is capable of such speeds within the Earth’s atmosphere. Mach 5 is the speed at which large amounts of heating occurs on an aircraft’s body, temperatures in excess of 1,800° F (1,000° C), so the engineering of hypersonic aircraft must be sufficiently advanced to protect passengers and aircraft structure from this extreme environment.

The A2 is intended to travel at Mach 5 within the atmosphere so it can enter low Earth orbit, giving it the ability to carry out orbital tasks as well as travelling to international destinations very quickly. It is hoped the A2 will travel from Europe to Australia within four hours. Reaction Engines Ltd. project the A2 will be in full production within 25 years.

The A2 will be able to do this through the use of Scimitar Engines – fueled by huge amounts of hydrogen (indeed, most of the aircraft fuselage will contain the fuel to feed the four engines slung under its wings) – that are designed around existing gas turbine, rocket and subsonic ramjet technology.

See more about the A2 design at Reaction Engines Ltd.

Source: BBC