FAA: All systems GO for Virgin Galactic space plane to launch from US Beardy Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is one step closer to opening its cabin doors for business, having secured authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration to launch its rocket plane from US soil. The Virgin mogul's space tourism outfit announced on Thursday that it has reached an agreement with the FAA that …
The most recent such test, conducted in January, saw it reach a maximum height of 71,000 feet – which, while fairly impressive by ordinary aviation standards, is still almost 200,000 feet shy of what the US Air Force considers "space".
I prefer Fred Hoyle's definition of space: "Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards."
@Richard Boyce:
I think you mean "Will be merely an extremely expensive amusement ride", as they still are a ways off from it.
It's kind of sad really. Virgin Galactic hasn't even gotten close to any sensible definition of space, will barely get there if everything goes perfect, and the top speed is slower than an SR-71. Meanwhile, SpaceX has already ran several resupply missions to the ISS, at about 7 times the speed. ( at least 17,100 MPH to match the ISS, but I believe it's capable of significantly more than that. ) The ISS is also about 3-4 times higher up than Virgin Galactics maximum height.
To top things off, SpaceX just announced their new manned capsule, for carrying 7 people to the ISS.
The way things are going, they're probably going to have a colony on Mars by the time VG gets going!
Virgin Galactic is a suborbital 'hop' - Alan Sheppard in 1961 did much the same - and far, far short of boost neeeded to make orbit.
However, VG is a space *plane*: both modules take off and land from a runway, and land for re-use.
The Space Shuttle never really delivered that - the tank wasn't recoverable, the boosters only marginally so, and the Orbiter required a major refit and refurbishment between flights.
I think that Virgin Galactic's rocket engines - on both the lifter and the actual space ship - will end up with a shorter engine life than they expected: refiring rocket motors is not a great idea, they operate right at the limits of the materials, but they'll probably do better than the shuttle.
Their heat shielding has much less work to do than the Shuttle tiles, and I don't think it'll be a major expense.
Your point about the SR-71 'Blackbird' is an interesting one: the J58 engines were limited by turbine inlet temperature and by tailpipe temperature. In theory, the inlet temperature isn't all that far off the stagnation temperature for *any* turbine in a supersonic airflow, and better turbine blades won't make anyimprovement; in practice, the J-58 is a turbine-assisted ramjet, with the majority of airflow going to the afterburner at Mach 3, and is rumoured to be capable of running with the turbines closed off completely at higher speeds. The limiting factor for that, in the J-58, is early-1960's metallurgy; and we now have alloys and ceramic components that perform far, far better.
The existence of a proven Mach 3+ engine is a thought to bear in mind if Reaction Jets and the Sabre project ever get their hydrogen-fuelled dual-cycle engine into an airframe for use as a hypersonic airliner; although their proposed 'Son-of-Hotol' spaceplane will develop thrust at altitudes which would starve the J-58 of oxygen and, when running on internally-supplied oxidiser, it's a genuine space motor.
>However, VG is a space *plane*: both modules take off and land from a runway, and land for re-use.
Plane yes, space almost, orbit - NO.
Getting to space is easy, just fly 60miles straight up
Staying in space involves then turning left and accelerating to 21,000mph - this is trickier
...I'm pretty sure it's a mere marketing gimmick - so you'll be less grumpy when you realize you've spent a fifth of a MEEEELION on a five minute zero-g ride - more than anything that would actually be required / make sense in any meaningful way. I'm fairly confident it can be summed up as "the barf bag is here, and please don't disturb / talk to the bus driv... erm, to the pilot".
As easy as it is to knock Virgin Galactic it is at least doing something to get ordinary (rich) people into or near space. Anything that keeps us as a race moving onward and upward is a good thing so long as it doesn't put people off, so let's hope VG is a success in some way.
I'm probably too old to get to see anyone with their own personal space yacht but Elon could be shaping up to be the first.
As for the future: presently I go there every day.
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