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Only 552 People Have Been To Space.

Virgin Galactic Is Opening Space To The Rest Of Us

Since the dawn of the space age, only 552 humans have traveled above the Earth’s atmosphere and into space. Throughout five decades of human spaceflight, the national space agencies in the United States, Russia, and China have inspired the world. But because government space agencies are not asked to help ordinary citizens to become astronauts, most of our planet’s seven billion people have had no opportunity to experience space and all of its possibilities for themselves, regardless of their passion or talents.

Virgin Galactic is changing that. Our purpose is to become the spaceline for Earth; democratizing access to space for the benefit of life on Earth

2. A typical flight to space on board SpaceShipTwo will take about 120 minutes from takeoff to landing

A typical flight to space on board SpaceShipTwo will take about 120 minutes from takeoff to landing. The flight profile, pictured below in Figure 1, will be the same for astronaut flights and autonomous payload flights. Figure 1: SpaceShipTwo Flight Profile. First, the mated pair of WK2 and SS2 will take-off from the 12,000 foot runway at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. Under power of WhiteKnightTwo’s four jet engines, the two mated vehicles will climb to an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet. After completing appropriate vehicle checks, SpaceShipTwo will be released from WhiteKnightTwo, free falling for a few seconds before igniting her rocket motor. SS2 will boost upward under the power of that rocket, eventually reaching peak speeds of as high as Mach 4, and then continue to coast upward, reaching a peak apogee as high as 361,000 feet (110 km), which is above the Kármán line – the boundary of space!

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SpaceShipTwo will reach 4,200 km/h (2,600 mph), using a single hybrid rocket engine — theRocketMotorTwo

SpaceShipTwo is a low-aspect-ratio passenger spaceplane. Its capacity will be eight people — six passengers and two pilots. The apogee of the new craft will be approximately 110 km (68 mi) in the lower thermosphere, 10 km (6.2 mi) higher than the Karman line which was SpaceShipOne’s target, although the last flight of Spaceship One reached a one-time altitude of 112 km (70 mi). SpaceShipTwo will reach 4,200 km/h (2,600 mph), using a single hybrid rocket engine — theRocketMotorTwo. It launches from its mother ship, White Knight Two, at an altitude of 15,000 metres (50,000 ft), and reaches supersonic speed within 8 seconds. After 70 seconds, the rocket engine cuts out and the spacecraft will coast to its peak altitude. Spaceship Two’s crew cabin is 3.7 m (12 ft) long and 2.3 m (7.5 ft) in diameter. The wing span is 8.2 m (27 ft), the length is 18 m (60 ft) and the tail height is 4.6 m (15 ft).

SpaceShipTwo uses a feathered reentry system, feasible due to the low speed of reentry. In contrast, the Space Shuttle and other orbital spacecraft re-enter at orbital speeds, closer to 25,000 km/h (16,000 mph), using heat shields. SpaceShipTwo is furthermore designed to re-enter the atmosphere at any angle. It will decelerate through the atmosphere, switching to a gliding position at an altitude of 24 km (15 mi), and will take 25 minutes to glide back to the spaceport.

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ASTRONAUT TRAINING

This Is How You Will Prepare For Space

Virgin Galactic aims to make space accessible to almost anyone who dreams of viewing the Earth from space and experiencing weightlessness. However, our first priority is safety: safety of our passengers, safety of our crew, and safety of our vehicles. Although we don’t expect many medical restrictions to prevent people from flying to space with us, we will not jeopardize your safety if we believe you are at risk.

Each astronaut will take part in three days of pre-flight preparation, bonding, and training onsite at Spaceport America, the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport. Learning how to make the most of time spent in microgravity as well as tips on how to be the most comfortable in macrogravity will form an important part of the preparation.  Pre-flight preparation will ensure that each astronaut is mentally and physically prepared to savor every second of the spaceflight. Basic emergency response training prescribed by our regulators will be at the forefront. Activities to aid familiarity with the spaceflight environment will follow a close second.

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How much does it cost ..? 

Virgin Galactic plans to operate a fleet of five SpaceShipTwo spaceplanes in a private passenger-carrying service and has been taking bookings for some time, with a suborbital flight carrying an updated ticket price of US$250,000. The spaceplane could also be used to carry scientific payloads for NASA and other organizations

https://youtu.be/BM5RQITpfgA

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