Virgin Galactic gets the green light: US aviation authorities approve Branson's space flights for launch later this year
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Richard Branson's dream to charter commercial space flights has taken a step closer to reality.
His company, Virgin Galactic, yesterday signed a deal with U.S. aviation authorities to let it blast paying customers into space.
Commercial flights are to begin by the end of this year and more than 600 people have already signed up at $250,000 (£150,000) each to take a trip on SpaceShipTwo.
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Richard Branson's dream to charter commercial space flights has taken a step closer to reality. Virgin Galactic has signed a deal with U.S. aviation authorities to let it blast customers into space. In this image Arnold Schwarzenegger (left) and Sir Richard Branson (right) stand next to a model of the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft
The agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sets out how routine space missions from the Spaceport America base in New Mexico will be coordinated with the normal air traffic control system.
'Our team is working hard to begin routine and affordable space launches from Spaceport America and this agreement brings us another step closer to that goal,' said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides.
The Virgin announcement came hours before Branson's main rival in the commercial space race was to unveil its latest spacecraft.
The agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sets out how routine space missions from the Spaceport America base in New Mexico will be coordinated with the normal air traffic control system. Pictured is the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft that will be used to fly passengers to space
Spaceport America's Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space Building is seen at the end of the road to the main runway, near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. This is the world's first purpose-built commercial space base and soon-to-be site of the first space flights
HOW WILL SPACE TOURISM WORK?
Ticket cost: The starting price for flights is $250,000 (£150,000) - the first ceremonial flight will be undertaken by Richard Branson and his family.
Training: Passengers are required to go through a 'Pre-Flight Experience Programme', including three days of pre-flight preparing onsite at the spaceport to ensure passengers are physically and mentally fit to fly.
Once aboard: SpaceShipTwo will carry six passengers and two pilots. Each passenger gets the same seating position with two large windows - one to the side and one overhead.
The space ship is 60ft long with a 90inch diameter cabin allowing maximum room for the astronauts to float in zero gravity.
Flight path: A climb to 50,000ft before the rocket engine ignites. Passengers become 'astronauts' when they reach the Karman line, the boundary of Earth's atmosphere, at which point SpaceShipTwo separates from its carrier aircraft, White Knight II.
The spaceship will make a sub-orbital journey with approximately six minutes of weightlessness, with the entire flight lasting approximately 3.5 hours. The spaceship accelerates to approximately 3,000 mph - or nearly four times the speed of sound
Flight frequency: Initially one per week, eventually to have two flights per day.
Elon Musk, chief executive and chief designer of SpaceX, present his company's 'next generation' Dragon V2 spacecraft at an event in California on yesterday evening.
The group has proposed launching 12 rockets per year from a site near Brownsville in southern Texas, but has not yet confirmed that they will be built in the area.
SpaceX, which already has craft supplying the International Space Station, has chosen Spaceport to test the Falcon 9 reusable rocket, meaning that it will launch vertically and then land intact.
'It really is the democratisation of space,' said Spaceport executive director, Christine Anderson, 'that you and I and our children and grandchildren can think about going to space, about going to Mars.'
Ms Anderson estimates there will be 200,000 visitors per year to Spaceport 'when all our customers are flying.'
As well as his dreams for commercial spaceflight, Richard Branson has said he wants to develop planes so fast that passengers will be able to travel between New York and Tokyo in less than an hour.
And he says the technology could be available sooner than we think
Speaking to CNBC, the entrepreneur said that once his Virgin Galactic space tourism project is underway he will turn his attentions to developing supersonic commercial flights that fly at 19,000 mph (30,500 km/h)
He said: 'After we've done the space programme, we will be producing supersonic planes, which will go far, far, faster than [the] Concorde.'
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