New Mexico built the spaceport with Virgin Galactic in mind.
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Sir Richard Branson yesterday revealed his Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo – the craft which will power the next phase of the company’s race to launch commercial space flights.
“We learned a lot from the accident, and we made a lot of changes”, said Mike Moses, a former Nasa shuttle manager who now oversees spaceflight operations for Galactic.
It was never meant for carrying customers. Then will come glide tests, which see the craft fly from a height of 45,000 feet down to the ground. However, the company declined to give a specific date for the spacecraft’s first passenger flights.
“I would be very proud to fly on this spaceship”, said Professor Stephen Hawking, who named the spacecraft ‘Unity, ‘ and whose recorded speech was played at the unveiling.
“But I had reckoned without the dream of another, a man with the vision and persistence to opening up spaceflight for ordinary Earthbound citizens”.
“Our handsome new spaceship, VSS Unity, is the embodiment of that goal and will provide us with an unprecedented body of experience which will in turn lay the foundations for Virgin Galactic’s future”.
The first SpaceShipTwo crashed partly because of pilot error, so this vehicle has new fail-safes in place to protect pilots from making critical mistakes during flight. Soon after igniting its rocket, the craft broke apart in midair and crashed, killing the co-pilot and severely injuring the pilot. The new SpaceShipTwo will now become Virgin Galactic’s main vehicle, although the final decision will depend on the performance of the space plane.
The new spaceship, which largely looks the same as its predecessor, made its debut in a ceremony at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Virgin Galactic said in a statement about the rollout.
“Helping the team unveil the new SpaceShipTwo not only reflects our supporting role in the Virgin Galactic programme, but it was also an impressive display of the Range Rover’s towing capability”.
Friday’s unveiling set the stage for the new ship’s first round of test flights. The new version of spaceship comes with a pin that prevents pilots from unlocking the tail section too early.
“Ultimately, we want to be able to produce our own point-to-point aircraft”.
“The best way to do that is to be involved with every aspect of the experimentation and the build”. The question is, is the company completely ready this time around?
Despite the hefty $250,000 price tag, more than 600 would-be astronauts have already signed up, including Hollywood actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Ashton Kutcher.
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Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides acknowledged that the crash had been a “tough day” that led to a period of hard reflection, but in its aftermath the team remained determined to fulfil the Virgin Galactic mission.
