Spacecraft that will be used is called Space Ship II, which is an enhanced version of Space Ship I. Space Ship II will be carried by a bigger plane, White Knight II, which was introduced to public last weekend in the Mojave desert. While Space Ship II is almost (60%) ready, White Knight II is ready to fly. This interesting looking airplane is completely made of carbon fiber composite. Bob Morgan, Lead engineer at Scaled Composites, said that the vehicle is triple the weight but has capacity for 12 more passengers. The plane’s cabling system is also carbon fiber.

Virgin Galactic Opening More Space Ports

During the introduction of White Knight II, Richard Branson announced that Virgin Galactic is going to open more space ports in addition to Mexico. Countries mentioned were Sweden, Spain and Far East. This is pretty interesting, because I live in Finland, next to Sweden. As soon as the Swedish space port has been opened, I will be there checking out the places. I wish I had extra $130.000, but it seems I have to wait for lower bids..

According to various sources, few older people are going to be among the first ones traveling to space. For example, Richard Branson’s parents as well as Stephen Hawking are going to be on board. I hope Mr. Hawking will stay healthy so that he will be able to join the flight. As you might know, Stephen Hawking suffers from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS is a progressive, usually fatal, neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement.

The first Virgin Galactic spaceships will be called “Spirit of Steve Fossett” after Sir Richard’s friend and his mother, “Eve”. According to Wikipedia, “James Stephen Fossett (April 22, 1944 – missing September 3, 2007, declared legally dead February 15, 2008) was an American aviator, sailor, and adventurer who became the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon. He made his fortune in the financial services industry and was best known for many world records, including five nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo flight fixed-wing aircraft pilot”.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is having a dream-come-true project. It is really fascinating to see ordinary people travelling to space and experiencing zero gravity. It is absolutely revolutionary! I wish I was going to join the first flights..

Source [Gizmodo via Techeblog]

So what is Virgin Galactic anyways? Wikipedia says:

Virgin Galactic is a company within Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, which plans to offer sub-orbital spaceflights and, in the future, orbital spaceflights to the paying public. Virgin Galactic’s mission is to fly passengers who are not professional astronauts to an altitude slightly over 100 kilometers (62 mi) and allow them to experience weightlessness for up to 6 minutes. Each seat will be sold for US$200,000. According to Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn, the company had sold nearly 200 seats as of November 2007. The first flight is planned for 2009.

Virgin Galactic is aiming to be the first space tourism company specializing in the provision of sub-orbital flights to the public. While orbital flights can be made by budding space tourists through the Russian Space Agency, there are presently no operational craft capable of sub-orbital flight aside from SpaceShipOne. However, EADS is currently working on a competing sub-orbital craft. Given that SpaceShipOne was designed for a very specific task, Virgin Galactic has commissioned Burt Rutan to design a newer, bigger and better version of his suborbital craft, called SpaceShipTwo. It is this eight seater craft, seating 2 pilots and 6 passengers, which will be used by Virgin Galactic passengers.

Check out the video below. It gives you more information on Virgin Galactic, commercial spaceflights, SpaceShipTwo aircraft as well as Sir Richard Branson, the “father” of Virgin Group.
Virgin Galactic, the first commercial space flight company, is soon ready to take the first people to space. Virgin Galactic will use their special-purpose aircrafts to provide this unforgettable trip outside our atmosphere. The company has spent years and millions of dollars to develop this spacecraft. Soon ordinary people can experience the feeling of flying to space.