Future of Virgin Galactic transorbital flights: 45 minutes from London to New York, an hour and a half from London to Sydney

With all due respect to Elon Mask, he is not the only businessman who is going to conquer space to private capital. Resilient Richard Branson presented on Monday to the Planetarium of the New York Museum of Natural History at the Virgin Disruptors event (Virgin-destroyers) his vision of long-distance flights of the future - not as far as flying to Mars, but still through space.



The head of Virgin Galactic, George Whitesides, said that space would play a decisive role in future commercial flights. The idea he voiced is in suborbital flights - i.e. with a rise to a height of at least 80-100 km above the Earth's surface.

“Imagine SpaceShipThree or SpaceShipFour (the current model of the aircraft is Virgin Galactic - SpaceShiptwo - approx. Lane.) , Extending beyond the atmosphere, then descending back down and landing away from cities.”
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Illustration from Spaceport Associates study

The presentation showed a video in which the supposedly real Virgin plane takes off from the surface of the earth, after which, when it reaches a certain height, the central part separates from it, which already goes into a suborbital flight.

Branson himself said that despite the numerous delays and cancellations, now the company is doing in strict accordance with the plan.

Not so rosy

Richard Branson was already expressing interest in supersonic flights. In 2003, Virgin offered British Airways five million pounds for five Concordes in working condition, but the deal never took place.

This idea attracted the European Space Agency (ESA), exploring high-altitude high-speed transport. However, before such a system will work, warns the ESA, there is much research ahead of the commercial and physical viability of the idea.

Existing medical research needs to be reviewed from the point of view of an ordinary passenger, who does not have an astronaut training, in order to establish a comfortable load limit.

If these problems can be overcome, then Virgin Galactic will be able to become a pioneer of a new type of commercial transportation, Whitesides believes.

However, the commercial part of the Virgin Galactic idea is also a little like a business plan: the executive director of the research company Spaceport Associates draws attention to the fact that it is not even clear whether the suborbital flights will perform the transport role, or will remain entertainment for tourists? How many people are willing to overpay hundreds of thousands of dollars to save twelve hours of traditional intercontinental flight? Serious market research has not yet been - at least published. The price of such flights is unknown. The design of future aircraft is not defined, ground infrastructure is not ready.

PS A small reminder of Branson's eccentricity: the presentation sponsor in the New York Planetarium was Gray Goose vodka , a partnership with which was announced there. This partnership will be in favor of the Virgin Galactics space program, but will consist mostly in the organization of Gray Goose "space" parties.



Vodka and space travel? Something reminds me of it.

by materials:
motherboard.vice.com/en_au/read/the-winklevoss-twins-are-using-their-bitcoins-to-go-to-space
observer.com/2014/09/beam-me-up-richard-branson-the-space-obsessed-billionaire-talks-rockets-and-vodka
www.ibtimes.co.uk/virgin-galactic-london-new-york-45-minutes-via-space-flight-1466947

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