You
may recall the article we did some time ago regarding the establishment
of Spaceport America, so when we heard about the completion of the
runway at Spaceport America, we thought it only fitting to mention it
here.
The 3.2 kilometer long, 60 meter wide runway was recently completed
and on Friday 22 October, 2010, the VSS Enterprise
(also known as SpaceShipTWo) will stage a flyby high above the newly
completed runway.
Virgin Galactic aims to be the first company in the word to offer and
promote space tourism, and has already collected millions of dollars in
deposits from more than 340 people who want to be part of this
phenomenon.
A larger aircraft (shall we call it the “mother-ship”), will carry
SpaceShipTwo up to an altitude of just over 50,000 feet (that’s about 16
kilometers) and then release the smaller ship.
SpaceShipTwo will then fire its own rocket motor, which wil carry the
craft further up towards the edge of space.
Once the craft reaches that height, pasengers will be able to
unbuckle their seatbelts and experience zero gravity, or simply remain
seated and catch an amazing view of the earth below through the ship’s
portholes located next to the seats.
The first commercial flights will reportedly commence in 2012.
All Images Courtesy of Spaceport America.
Spaceport America Conceptual Images URS/Foster + Partners







window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
FB.init({appId: "", status: true, cookie: true,
xfbml: true});
};
(function() {
var e = document.createElement("script"); e.async = true;
e.src = document.location.protocol +
"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js";
document.getElementById("fb-root").appendChild(e);
}());