{"id":18890,"date":"2017-07-05T23:09:10","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T15:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/richard-branson-says-spaceshiptwo-is-set-to-blast-off-into-space-by-years-end\/"},"modified":"2017-07-05T23:09:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T15:09:10","slug":"richard-branson-says-spaceshiptwo-is-set-to-blast-off-into-space-by-years-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/richard-branson-says-spaceshiptwo-is-set-to-blast-off-into-space-by-years-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Branson says SpaceShipTwo is set to blast off into space by year\u2019s end"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_298492\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-298492\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-298492\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161222-spaceshiptwo-630x354.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceShipTwo\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161222-spaceshiptwo-630x354.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161222-spaceshiptwo-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161222-spaceshiptwo-1240x698.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161222-spaceshiptwo.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-298492\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Virgin Galactic\u2019s VSS Unity glides through the skies over California\u2019s Mojave Desert. (Virgin Galactic Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Virgin Galactic\u2019s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, has been toning down his predictions about the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane\u2019s future trips to space. Until now.<\/p>\n<p>During a trip to Hong Kong to inaugurate a new Virgin Australia route from Melbourne, Branson said the second SpaceShipTwo, known as VSS Unity, \u201cwill be back in space by the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI plan to go to space next year,\u201d he told Australian Business Traveller.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg News quoted Branson as saying that rocket-powered tests would be scheduled every three weeks, culminating in test flights to outer-space altitudes by November or December. Commercial passenger operations should start by the end of 2018, after Branson\u2019s inaugural ride, he said in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>During the development and testing of the first SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise, Branson repeatedly set ambitious timetables for the start of service. In 2008, it was 2009. In 2009, it was 2011. In 2011, it was 2013. In 2013, it was 2014. And in 2014, Branson told NBC News\u2019 Brian Williams that he\u2019d fly into space in \u201cearlyish\u201d 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Then, on Oct. 31, 2014, VSS Enterprise broke up during a rocket-powered test flight, killing the co-pilot and severely injuring the pilot. In the wake of that tragedy, Branson and other Virgin Galactic executives held off on giving timetables.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s taken almost three years to address the flaws pointed up during the accident investigation, complete construction of VSS Unity and conduct the initial rounds of unpowered tests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat accident was a major, major blow, but everyone\u2019s worked day and night since then to get us back on track,\u201d Branson told Australian Business Traveler.<\/p>\n<p>Branson\u2019s comments signal, at the very least, that rocket-powered test flights will be starting soon.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Elevating Unity - Episode 3: First Feather\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yOVh19cOpOc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>About 700 customers \u2013 including celebrities such as Stephen Hawking,&nbsp;Leonardo DiCaprio and Katy Perry \u2013 have made reservations for flights to the edge of space, paying as much as $250,000 for a seat.<\/p>\n<p>The flight profile calls for Unity to be dropped from its WhiteKnightTwo mothership at an altitude of around 45,000 feet, fire up its hybrid rocket engine and head spaceward. The internationally accepted boundary of outer space is 100 kilometers (62 miles) in altitude, but there have been hints that initial flights might target the U.S. Air Force\u2019s 50-mile standard instead.<\/p>\n<p>At the top of the ride, passengers would feel several minutes of weightlessness. They\u2019d get an astronaut\u2019s-eye view of the Earth below,&nbsp;and experience as much as 6 G\u2019s of acceleration. At the end, Unity would glide back to base for a runway landing.<\/p>\n<p>Tests are being conducted at California\u2019s Mojave Air and Space Port, but the venue would shift to New Mexico\u2019s Spaceport America for commercial service.<\/p>\n<p>Branson said he expects to face \u201csome formidable competition with formidably deep pockets,\u201d coming from Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture and from billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos has said Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital spaceship could be flying passengers by the end of 2018. Meanwhile, Musk is bypassing the suborbital market, but capitalizing on orbital launches and making plans to fly settlers to Mars.<\/p>\n<p>Branson told Bloomberg that \u201cthere is definitely the demand for all three.\u201d He touted Virgin Orbit, a separate venture that is gearing up to launch satellites into orbit from a modified 747 jet. Virgin Orbit\u2019s first test launches could come as early as the first quarter of 2018, Branson said.<\/p>\n<p>Embed from Getty Images<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/808637480?et=-Kyiv6aTQR5_G_YSc8Zgkg&amp;tld=com&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=APdvuMHixnYc0IrzYPIu2sfwhVifWjHSw62eca0KxT8=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"630\" height=\"423\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<p>\u201cWe can take off at 24 hours\u2019 notice, put a couple of satellites up and come back again,\u201d he told Bloomberg. \u201cWith ground-based rockets, there\u2019s quite a long waiting time. Elon has bigger rockets, so he has advantages there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Branson implied that commercial space ventures could leapfrog NASA, even though the Trump administration revived the National Space Council last week to accelerate the government-run space effort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think myself and Jeff Bezos and Elon are just getting on with it,\u201d Branson told Bloomberg. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve heard of anything majorly exciting that\u2019s come out of the administration as far as space is concerned, but maybe they\u2019ll surprise us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also gave a shout-out to Denver-based Boom Technology, which is developing a supersonic airplane with Virgin\u2019s backing.&nbsp;Last month, Boom said five airlines have placed a total of 76 orders for planes. Branson\u2019s Virgin Group says it has the option to buy the first 10 airframes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey will be much faster than Concorde, but still be flying suborbital, so maybe Boom will be about as fast as is sensible from a passenger comfort perspective,\u201d Branson told Australian Business Traveller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virgin Galactic\u2019s VSS Unity glides through the skies over California\u2019s Mojave Desert. (Virgin Galactic Photo) Virgin Galactic\u2019s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, has been toning down his predictions about the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane\u2019s future trips to space. Until now. During a trip to Hong Kong to inaugurate a new Virgin Australia route from Melbourne, Branson said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1693,1973,492,1600],"class_list":["post-18890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-richard-branson","tag-spaceshiptwo","tag-virgin-galactic","tag-vss-unity"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}