SpaceShipTwo, developed by Virgin Group and Scaled Composites, offers suborbital commercial flights with six minutes of weightlessness. It is the successor to SpaceShipOne and can accommodate six passengers and two pilots. Virgin Galactic plans to launch flights by late 2009 or early 2010. The company is also working on plans for SpaceShipThree, an orbital capable craft. The flights begin with the space plane locked into place in the WhiteKnightTwo, a mother ship that launches the plane. SpaceShipTwo is not capable of orbital flight. Virgin Galactic hopes to offer several flights a week, basing the schedule at Spaceport America in New Mexico.
The SpaceShipTwo is a space plane developed in a joint venture between Virgin Group and Scaled Composites. It’s designed for suborbital commercial flights, with passengers booking two-and-a-half-hour flights so they have a chance to experience space, however briefly: About six minutes of weightlessness are in store for SpaceShipTwo’s passengers. . Virgin Galactic, the arm of the Virgin Group that manages its spaceflight program, plans to launch the flights by late 2009 or early 2010.
This space plane is the descendant of the imaginative SpaceShipOne, an experimental craft that won the Ansari X Prize in 2004. SpaceShipOne pioneered privately funded spaceflight, and the company began improving on the design almost immediately. advertising SpaceShipTwo in 2006 As of 2008, the company was also working on plans for SpaceShipThree, an orbital capable craft.
Flights of the SpaceShipTwo, sometimes called SpaceShip 2 or SpaceShip Two, begin with the space plane locked into place in the WhiteKnightTwo, a mother ship that launches the plane. When released, the space plane moves into a suborbital flight path, essentially traveling 62 kilometers to briefly dive into space before returning to Earth. This aircraft is not capable of orbital flight, a flight in which a spacecraft completes at least one full orbit around the Earth.
Six passengers and two pilots can be accommodated on SpaceShipTwo. The vessel’s interior reflects Virgin Group’s obsession with design, with a host of features designed to make flying comfortable and innovative. When SpaceShipTwo enters full service, Virgin Galactic hopes to offer several flights a week, basing the schedule at Spaceport America in New Mexico. Competition for tickets was fierce in 2007, with thousands competing for the first 200 tickets to be released, even though Virgin Galactic had yet to officially announce a flight schedule.
Basically, SpaceShipTwo is new, even if the rides are quite expensive. However, the success of SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo suggests that spaceflight is worth investing in and lays the groundwork for orbital spacecraft like SpaceShipThree, along with vehicles that could potentially travel even further. Maybe one day people will be able to buy tickets on flights that travel beyond Earth’s orbit, allowing passengers to explore the solar system or even the galaxy.
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