Mumbai: The Space tourism services by Virgin Galactic have introduced the first ever commercial space flight for space enthusiasts all over the world. The space journey is estimated to cost about $200,000 (about Rs 90 lakh). The operations will be start in the year of 2012. And among the 500 enthusiasts who are ready to explore the space, five of them are Indians. The space travellers are taken 110 km above the earth's surface and it is a two hour flight journey. In partnership with Scaled Composites, suborbital tourism will be building the first privately funded manned spaceship.
There are about 45 countries which are participating in this journey. The aircraft is called the Christened Enterprise. The aircraft is attached to a mother ship which will be detached later when the aircraft reaches a height of 50,000 feet. Then the Enterprise's rocket motors will ignite, accelerating the ship to three times the speed of sound, taking it up over the Earth's atmosphere. At that point, the engines will shut off, leaving passengers weightless, able to somersault freely, and, most importantly, have a view of the Earth from space. After 4 to 5 mins the gravity will pull the enterprise back to Earth
Virgin Galatic has charted out a few tests and preparations that the space travelers have to go through, which includes medical tests, safety training and interactive sessions for the space travelers and pilots to get to know each other, followed by a meeting with the billionaire founder of the company Richard Branson.
Stephen Attenborough, the CEO of Virgin Galactic said "You are classified as an astronaut on travelling to up to 100 KMs above the earth's surface. We intend to push this a little and turn ordinary citizens into astronauts on this space journey."
The company has invested about $200 million in the project and is expected to invest another $200 million by the time the company starts generating profits. The space tourism company also foresses the ticket pricing coming down up to $50,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment