Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, teased in a special edition of his LinkedIn newsletter on Thursday that he is set to turn "dream into reality" with Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity 22 spacecraft's suborbital spaceflight on Sunday.
"I've wanted to go to space ever since I was a young boy and watched the moon landings from our black and white television set. When commercial spaceflights did not look likely for my generation, I registered the name Virgin Galactic with the hope of creating a company that could make it happen," Branson explained Thursday on a LinkedIn Newsletter. "17 years later and I'm thrilled that Virgin Galactic is at the vanguard of this new space age that I've been dreaming about for so long."
Virgin Galactic To Test Private Astronaut Experience
Sunday's journey will be "testing the private astronaut experience," Virgin Galactic said. One of the primary goals will be to assess the "commercial customer cabin with a full crew," including the cabin environment, seat comfort, weightlessness, and views of Earth provided by the spaceship, in order to ensure that "every moment of the astronaut's journey maximizes the wonder and awe created by space travel".
The VSS Unity and its mothership, the VMS Eve (named after Branson's mother), will climb together to a height of just under 50,000 feet before the spaceship is released and its rocket ignites, propelling the craft to a speed of "a little over Mach 3" and a height of approximately 300,000 feet above Earth.
"The planet peers back at you through the ship's 17 windows as you see home for the first time," Virgin Galactic notes on its website. "16 cameras throughout the cabin record every moment of the experience in HD."
After the ship lowers into the atmosphere and the pilot lands on the runway, the VSS Unity's wings lift 60 degrees before dropping again, as demonstrated in a successful test at the end of May following delays.
Branson To Verify Astronaut Journey, Too
Branson said his involvement in Sunday's mission would be to "verify the journey our future astronauts will take and ensure they'd deliver the one-of-a-kind customer experience that Virgin customers expect.
The Los Angeles Times said Virgin Galactic chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, lead operations engineer Colin Bennett, government affairs vice president Sirisha Bandla and pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, will join Branson in the flight.
Virgin Galactic, according to Branson, believes that bettering our use of space will help humanity overcome many of the issues we have in supporting life on our beautiful but fragile planet.
It is one thing to dream about making space more accessible to everyone, he continued, but it is another to make that idea a reality. This has been a massive and fantastic team effort, Branson noted. He added he is grateful to everyone who has contributed to creating this one-of-a-kind program.
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How To Watch The Launch
Virgin Galactic's flight will be live streamed on LinkedIn starting at 9 a.m. on Sunday. It comes nine days before Blue Origin's first crewed flight on July 20. Its New Shepard rocket will include:
- Founder Jeff Bezos;
- His brother Mar;
- 82-year-old female aerospace pioneer Wally Funk; and
- A $28-million mystery auction winner.
Branson says he will announce Sunday's mission to "offer more people the chance to become an astronaut."
Will Branson Reach Space, Though?
Branson addressed Smith's Kármán line comment during an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) on July 7. He pointed out both NASA and the FAA acknowledge the 50-mile border. But will he reach that line though?
Branson told NPR's Leila Fadel that "the actual difference in experience will be essentially non-existent." He noted that travelers on Unity and New Shepard would have nearly identical periods of weightless time. On its flights, Virgin Galactic promises around 4 minutes of weightlessness.
Other supporters of the 50-mile boundary include Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and satellite tracker at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Space.com said.
Theodore von Kármán, a Hungarian-American physicist, proposed that space begins where orbital dynamics forces exceed aerodynamic forces in the mid-nineteenth century. The decision to set the boundary at 100 kilometers was based on "a rough order-of-magnitude argument," according to McDowell. After all, 100 kilometers is a lot closer to the target than 10 kilometers or 1,000 kilometers.
According to McDowell, the genuine limit, according to von Kármán's original concept, is between 70 and 90 kilometers (43 and 56 miles). So, knowing that this hazy marker marks a sort of point of no return for satellites, 80 km (50 miles) is a good approximation. Spacecraft with elliptical orbits that carry them below 80 kilometers can only make one more circle around our planet, according to McDowell. In contrast, vehicles that stay just a few kilometers higher can stay aloft for days or weeks.
So, are we on our way to a global agreement that 50 kilometers mark the start of space? Or will the discussion drag on for years, with the two sides becoming further polarized? In any case, it will be an entertaining ride.
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