How Will Space Tourism Look (and Feel)?
Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 10.08.10 | 1:30 PM ET
With Virgin Galactic’s planned launch drawing nearer, World Hum contributor Terry Ward takes a look at the aircraft that will soon be carrying the first paying civilians beyond Earth’s atmosphere:
In order to imagine how Virgin Galactic’s brand of space travel will work, you have to get images of a classic NASA shuttle launch out of your head. Instead of a land-based launch, Virgin Galactic’s system involves a mothership, called the Virgin Mothership Eve (VMSEve). The innovative aircraft, also designed by Rutan and built by Scaled Composites, is the largest all-carbon composite aviation vehicle ever built and, according to Virgin Galactic, the most fuel efficient of its size.
The VMSEve, a twin fuselage aircraft with one enormous wingspan that stretches 140 feet across, is the vehicle that will carry SpaceShipTwo into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. SpaceShipTwo will be positioned under the wing, between the mothership’s fuselages, for the ride up. From an altitude of over 50,000 feet, the spaceship will be launched from the mothership, using its own rocket power to reach its destination of 68 miles above the Earth’s surface. The most recent test flights, Attenborough says, had a pilot inside the spaceship “taking the last preparations for the first solo flight of the spaceship.”
There’s no firm date set yet for Virgin Galactic’s debut, but 2012 looks likely. When they do launch, we hope they’ll remember our advice about the five songs that have no business being played in space.