Two space tourism trips near blast-off
VIRGIN GALACTIC ( R3.3M ) AND BLUE ORIGIN But unlike the ISS trip costing tens of millions to orbit the earth, these excursions are minutes-long.
The two companies leading the pack in the pursuit of space tourism say they are just months away from their first out-of-this-world passenger flights – though neither has set a firm date.
Virgin Galactic, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, and Blue Origin, by Amazon creator Jeff Bezos, are racing to be the first to finish their tests, with both companies using radically different technology.
Neither Virgin nor Blue Origin’s passengers will find themselves orbiting the Earth. Instead, their weightless experience will last just minutes. It’s an offering very different from the first space tourists, who paid tens of millions of dollars to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) in the 2000s.
Having paid for a much cheaper ticket, costing $250 000 (R3.3m) with Virgin – as yet unknown with Blue Origin – the new round of space tourists will be propelled dozens of kilometres into the atmosphere, before coming back to Earth. By comparison, the ISS is in orbit 400km from our planet.
The goal is to approach or pass through the imaginary line marking where space begins, either the Karman line, at 100km, or the 80km boundary recognised by the US Air Force. At this altitude, the sky looks dark and the curvature of the earth can be seen clearly.
With Virgin Galactic, six passengers and two pilots are boarded onto SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity, which resembles a private jet. The VSS Unity will be attached to a carrier spacecraft from which it will then detach at about 15 000m.
Once released, the spaceship will fire up its rocket and head for the sky. Then, the passengers will float in zero gravity for several minutes, before coming back to Earth. The descent is slowed down by a “feathering” system that sees the spacecraft’s tail pivot before gliding to land at Virgin’s “spaceport” in the New Mexico desert. In total, the mission lasts between 90 minutes and two hours.
Blue Origin, meanwhile, has developed a system closer to the traditional rocket: the New Shepard. On this journey, six passengers sit in a “capsule” fixed to the top of a 15m-long rocket. After launching, it detaches and continues its trajectory toward the sky.
On an April 29 test, the capsule made it to 106km. After a few minutes of weightlessness, during which passengers take in the view, the capsule gradually falls back to earth with three large parachutes and retrorockets used to slow the spacecraft. From take-off to landing, the flight took 10 minutes during the latest test. – AFP