‘An out-of-this-world experience’
Pilots will interact with passengers during three- to four-day in-flight training.
The welcoming design by Virgin Galactic’s Jeremy Brown incorporating the stark beauty surrounding Spaceport America is a huge part of the customer experience.
But when the first paying “future astronauts” climb into white Range Rovers to be driven to mothership VMS Eve and spaceship “Unity,” that customer experience will be all about the technology and the pilots.
Virgin Galactic currently has six pilots, all with military test pilot experience.
Pilot Mike Masucci, who drove reporters down the 12,000-foot runway, talked about how the flight crew will interact with the people they will take to the edge of space and back
He said the pilots on the flight will interact with passengers throughout the three or four days of pre-flight training.
“We want them to feel like they know us,” he said. “We will explain in detail what they can expect. What noises they will hear. We don’t want surprises for them in what will be an out-of-this-world experience.”
Masucci, who was a test pilot on both F-16s and high-altitude U2s during his years in the U.S. Air Force, said the pilot corps trains hard, including annual trips to a centrifuge in Pennsylvania that simulates the 2 or 3 gs they might experience.
Chief pilot Dave Mackay, former commander of the Royal Air Force fast jet test flight, said they also encourage would-be passengers to visit the centrifuge and possibly do a parabolic flight that simulates weightlessness.
But neither is required and Virgin Galactic President Mike Moses said most people are healthy enough to make the flight, although there will be pre-flight medical screening.
“Up to now,“he said, “everyone who has done this has been between 20 and 40 years old, and in great physical condition. We are opening this to everyone.”
And Brown hopes that as more people have the opportunity to experience space, more will realize the “fragility of Earth.”
And “Seeing Earth in a different light … with no borders.”