I remember watching Apollo 13 and thinking that those astronauts were tackling the impossible. Now we are at a time were almost anyone can experience what those astronauts did. Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin is in the process of providing the ultimate thrill ride for well-heeled space tourists and amateur astronauts.
The spaceship will hold six lucky passengers and two pilots. The spaceship is about the same size of a Falcon 900 executive jet. Some breathtaking features include no floor dissecting the cabin allowing maximum room for the astronauts who desire the opportunity to float in the zero gravity. For those passengers who want the experience but maybe not the floating feeling, two windows are located near each individual, one above and one to the side which gives the passengers the capabilities to see 1000 feet out.
The spaceship is powered by a hybrid rocket motor, meaning that it provides safety and environmental advantages over liquid or solid systems that are more commonly used. Being powered by a hybrid rocket makes it easy for the pilot to shut down the spaceship rocket motor at any time during its operation and glide safely back to the runway.
Virgin Galactic has plans to spend about $400 million in hopes to build five or six rocket planes. Although currently still in the experimental stage, if everything goes according to plan commercial flights could start launching anytime this year. The Spaceship when ready, will launch from the New Mexico Spaceport which is still under construction at this time. The price of a ticket on this once in a lifetime experience is $200,000 per ticket. You may be thinking who in their right mind would pay that much to travel to space and the answer is about 390 people. Just the 390 people who have already paid up front has estimated to be about 50 million in revenue so far. You could be the next one!!!
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