Now, I want the astronauts of tomorrow to look forward and make their own dreams come true.”Ĭongratulations to and for dreaming so big! Now it’s your turn… For so long, we have looked back in wonder at the space pioneers of yesterday. In that spirit, and with today’s successful flight of VSS Unity, I’m thrilled to announce Virgin Galactic’s new partnership with Omaze and Space for Humanity to inspire the next generation of dreamers. I can’t wait to share this awe-inspiring experience with aspiring astronauts around the world.”īranson continued, “Our mission is to make space more accessible to all. As Virgin’s founder, I was honoured to test the incredible customer experience as part of this remarkable crew of mission specialists and now astronauts. We are at the vanguard of a new space age. Richard Branson said: “I have dreamt about this moment since I was a child, but nothing could have prepared me for the view of Earth from space. Watch the launch of the next space age at 6 am PT | 9 am ET | 2 pm BST on #Unity22 /JpqXx8cy04- Richard Branson July 11, 2021 Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is much larger and incorporates notable design changes, including the relocation of its wings from the top to the bottom of its fuselage.My mission statement is to turn the dream of space travel into a reality - for my grandchildren, for your grandchildren, for everyone. SpaceShipOne was smaller, with just three seats, and looked remarkably like something Flash Gordon would have flown. The spacecraft looks decidedly different from its predecessor, SpaceShipOne, which earned Rutan's team a $10 million prize in 2004 by becoming the first privately built, manned rocket ship to fly into space twice in a span of two weeks. Virgin Galactic showed video of workers lifting big sections of the spacecraft with little effort, as if they were made of light plastic. White Knight Two will have about the same wingspan of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, but, in contrast to the World War II bomber, both it and SpaceShipTwo are being built entirely from ultra-light composite materials. The pair and other Scaled engineers attending Wednesday's news conference said they would keep many of the technical details of their launching system secret, but they offered a few facts about the craft. That era was not a particularly safe time for air travel, by modern standards, but Rutan said it would be "hundreds of times safer" than government-funded space flight has been to date.īranson said he has already reserved seats on one of the early flights for his elderly mother and father. Rutan acknowledged that the project has risks, but said that when the spacecraft starts flying paying passengers, it will be at least as safe as the early airlines were in the 1920s. He added that there was "no question" that the accident is causing a delay in the engine's development, but did not comment on whether that would disrupt plans for test flights. "We don't know yet exactly what caused it," Rutan said. Investigators and the company's engineers are still trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. California occupational safety inspectors fined Scaled Composites $25,870. Questions about their safety were highlighted last July, when the spacecraft's engine exploded during a routine ground test. The primary job for the designers will be confirming that the pair of experimental vehicles are safe. Space travel is something I've been thinking about since I read Jules Verne as a kid." "But this is about realizing a childhood dream. Baxter, a real estate marketing executive, said he recently completed preflight training that included being subjected to extreme g-forces in a whirling centrifuge, and hopes to be in space in a year. "You can't even imagine my excitement," said Baxter after seeing the models.
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