- Richard Branson (Richard Branson) became the first person to launch to the edge of space on his company’s rocket plane, thus making history.
- The entire flight, from take-off to landing, lasted about an hour.
- Virgin Atlantic said it plans to conduct at least two further test flights of the space shuttle in the next few months before starting regular commercial operations.
On Sunday, British billionaire Richard Branson flew more than 50 miles over the New Mexico desert in a Virgin Galactic rocket plane and returned safely to the vehicle’s first manned test flight, which he started 17 years ago Symbolic milestone of adventure.
Branson is one of six employees of Virgin Galactic Holdings. He touted the mission as a pioneer in a new era of space tourism. The company he founded in 2004 is ready to start commercial operations next year.
The success of this flight also allowed the personable entrepreneur to brag about himself in a widely publicized competition with billionaire Jeff Bezos, the Amazon online retail tycoon who had hoped to ride himself first The rocket of the aerospace company flew into space.
The VSS Unity airliner rocket launched on Sunday marked the 22nd test flight of the company’s SpaceShipTwo system and its fourth manned mission outside the Earth’s atmosphere. It is also the first aircraft to carry a full set of space travelers-two pilots and four “mission experts”, Branson is one of them.
One week before his 71st birthday, Branson and his teammates walked onto the tarmac, waved to a group of onlookers, and boarded the Unity rocket plane parked at the end of the taxiway. The video released by Virgin Galactic showed that Branson rode a bicycle to the takeoff site earlier and hugged the crew.
The holiday gatherings of aerospace industry executives, future customers and other blessers all witnessed the launch on the spot, and late-night TV comedian Stephen Colbert hosted a demonstration. Attendees include billionaire and aerospace industry pioneer Elon Musk, who is also the founder of electric car manufacturer Tesla Inc.
The Grammy-nominated R&B singer Khalid took the stage to perform his upcoming single “New Normal” after the flight.
On Sunday, when this gleaming white space plane took off from the U.S. Spaceport, it was connected to the bottom of the twin-fuselage jet VMS Eve (named after Branson’s late mother). This is a veritable truth located in Or state-owned facilities near the town. Virgin Galactic leased most of the 18,000 acre site.
After reaching a high-altitude launch site of approximately 46,000 feet, the Unity was released from the mothership and fell as the crew ignited the vehicle’s rocket and lifted it at supersonic speed into a dark space approximately 53 miles (85.9 kilometers) high.
The space plane is clearly visible from the ground as it soars in the upper atmosphere and is clearly visible from the cheers of the crowd below.
At the peak of the climb when the rocket was off, the crew then experienced a few minutes of microgravity, then the shuttle switched to reentry mode and began to glide down to the runway back to the spaceport. The entire flight, from take-off to landing, lasted about an hour.
High-priced ticket
Virgin Atlantic said it plans to conduct at least two further test flights of the space shuttle in the next few months before starting regular commercial operations in 2022.
This is not a discount travel service. But the demand is clearly strong. Hundreds of wealthy astronauts who want to become citizens have already booked air tickets, each costing approximately US$250,000.
UBS, the Swiss-based investment bank, estimates that by 2030, the potential value of the space tourism market will reach US$3 billion per year.
Given the inherent dangers of space flight, proving that rocket travel is key to public safety.
In 2014, an early prototype of the Virgin Galactic rocket plane crashed during a test flight over the Mojave Desert in California, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.
Branson announced his participation in Sunday’s flight a week ago, which is consistent with his image as an adventurous executive. Its Virgin brand—from airlines to music companies—has long been associated with sailing ships and hot air balloons Foreign activities are linked together.
Space race
His hitchhiker also defeated rival astronomy travel company Blue Origin and its founder Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos in a game called the “Billionaire Space Race.”
Bezos has been planning to fly on his own suborbital rocket, the New Shepard, later this month.
Branson insists that he and Bezos are friendly opponents, not a personal competition to defeat each other in space.
Bezos posted a message on Instagram on Saturday, hoping that Branson and his team would “flight successfully and safely”, but despite this, there is still some public hatred between the two.
Blue Origin belittles Virgin Galactic, thinking that it has no real space flight experience, saying that, unlike Unity, Bezos’s new Shepard is located 62 miles (100 kilometers) high, called the Carmen Line, set by the international aviation agency as Define the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space.
“The new Shepard was designed to fly over the Carmen line, so there is no asterisk next to our astronaut’s name,” Blue Origin said in a series of Twitter posts on Friday.
However, both NASA and the U.S. Air Force define an astronaut as anyone who has a flight altitude of more than 50 miles (80 kilometers).
The third participant in the space race, Musk’s SpaceX, plans to put its first civilian crew (without Musk) into orbit in September. It has previously launched a large number of cargo payloads and payloads for NASA to the International Space Station. astronaut.
According to Virgin Atlantic news materials, Branson’s official role in Sunday’s test flight is to “assess the experience of a private astronaut.”
The two pilots of this space plane, Dave McKay and Michael Masucci, are tasked with controlling the ignition and shutdown of the spacecraft rocket, activating the “feather-like” tail maneuver of the aircraft to re-enter and guide the spacecraft back to Earth.
The other three mission experts are Beth Moses, the company’s chief astronaut instructor; Colin Bennett, chief operating engineer, Virgin Galactic; and Sirisha Bandla, vice president of research operations and government affairs.
