CLOSE Space travel isn’t just for astronauts anymore. Virgin Galactic is poised to change everything. USA TODAYWhiteKnightTwo, the plane that carries Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of 5| Techie World<\/b>
\nMOJAVE, Calif. \u2013 Deep inside The Spaceship Company\u2019s secretive Building 79, a man points to a rigid but lightweight panel made from carbon fiber that is the thickness of two decks of cards.
The absurdity of what he\u2019s about to say makes him smile.
\u201cThere\u2019s just about 1 inch between you and space,\u201d says Enrico Palermo, president of Virgin\u2019s The Spaceship Company, which is tasked with building the plane-like crafts that Virgin Galactic plans to use to take paying customers on a joy ride into the cosmos next year.
\u201cThat\u2019s it, 1 inch,\u201d says Palermo, pointing at the thin hull material and shaking his head during a tour of the facility in November. \u201cAmazing what humans can do.\u201d
Especially when it comes to space. Venturing into the cosmos has always packed a thrill, a risk, an adventure and a cost in both dollars and lives. It was always down to government agencies and professional astronauts to pay that price and reap those rewards. But no longer.
If all goes to plan, though admittedly little in the realm of space exploration does, Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin Galactic could be the first of a few tech-titan-fueled private space ventures to blast ordinary humans into space and return them safely to Earth.
The company\u2019s tourism spaceship hit a new target Thursday, for the first time soaring more than 50 miles above California\u2019s Mojave Desert. \u201cSpaceShipTwo, welcome to space,\u201d the company wrote on its Twitter account after the test. But whether Virgin Galactic becomes merely a thrill ride for those with $250,000 for a ticket or a giant leap for mankind remains a looming question.
For his part, Branson is confident his new company will be both, a unique adventure whose payoff \u2013 the so-called Overview Effect, where humans gape in wide-eyed awe at our big blue marble from 50 miles high \u2013 will generate a protective love of home.
\u201cWe will provide a platform for those (Virgin Galactic customers) to share their experiences and accelerate the global understanding of a fundamental truth, that we are essentially all in this together, fellow passengers on spaceship Earth,\u201d Branson told USA TODAY in an email exchange.
\u201cI am,\u201d he adds, \u201cone of those who feels reasonably optimistic for the future of planet Earth as a good place for humans to live, despite the huge challenges.\u201d
With his \u201cleave Earth to appreciate it\u201d mission statement, Branson is taking a tack that differs from that of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, whose Blue Origin rocket company envisions humans living and working in space, or SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who famously is aiming for human colonization of Mars.
But where Blue Origin officials say only that tickets go on sale next year for its autonomous space ride and SpaceX has plans to send up a lone customer as more of a one-off venture, Virgin Galactic is making noises that 2019 could bring regular customer trips out of its futuristic Spaceport in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.
Some might not be holding their breath. Virgin Galactic has a history of promising imminent flights dating back a decade. In 2008, Branson predicted an inaugural flight within 18 months, and reiterated that timing in 2011. In the spring of 2013, Branson predicted he\u2019d be space-bound by Christmas, perhaps dressed as Santa.
Missed targets aside, at the very least a spirit of competition between three men who have been passionate about cosmic adventures has spawned a new space race.
\u201cElon and Jeff and Richard have looked at the human-based (government space) programs that existed and concluded rightly they weren\u2019t keeping pace,\u201d says Christian Davenport, author of \u201cThe Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos.\u201d
\u201cThese folks come out of the tech world, or in Richard\u2019s case he\u2019s funded all sorts of ventures, and they operate at a quick pace,\u201d Davenport says. \u201cThere\u2019s overall a huge frustration that, after NASA stepped away (from the Space Shuttle program), that we haven\u2019t pushed farther into space. No one\u2019s flown (tourists) into space. But Virgin Galactic now is getting close.\u201d
USA TODAY recently visited the company\u2019s longtime desert-based headquarters two hours north of Los Angeles to check on the company\u2019s progress as it races toward its first commercial launch.
Each 90-minute Virgin Galactic trip will star two pilots and six passengers, including on the inaugural ride with Branson and his two children, Sam and Holly, as well as for the first of 600 customers who have already paid for flights (they\u2019re refundable if you opt to bail).
The rare facility tour \u2013 which was focused on a series of cavernous buildings dedicated to manufacturing and testing its plane-like SpaceShipTwo (SS2) \u2013 kicked off with a dawn launch of WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), the massive, albatross-shaped mother ship that carries SS2 50,000 feet for its airborne launch.
As the gangly white craft taxied down the runway, Virgin Galactic chief pilot Dave Mackay, an amiable Scot who is one of a half-dozen experienced fliers slated to ferry customers into the great beyond, waxed lyrical about the joy ride.
\u201cWe\u2019ve all been around the block,\u201d says the former Royal Air Force and ex-Virgin Airlines pilot. \u201cBut when we do these tests (of SS2), we\u2019re just like little kids again.\u201d
Mackay runs through the sequence that Virgin Galactic customers will experience. After strapping into their reclining seats, SS2 is taken to just above commercial jet altitudes by WK2. \u201cWe\u2019ll talk a bit, but won\u2019t bore them,\u201d Mackay says with a laugh.
At cruising altitude, things get serious. WK2 drops SS2 and banks away sharply. \u201cYou\u2019ll feel like you just went over the lip of a roller coaster,\u201d says Mackay. Just under four seconds later, with WK2 safely away, pilots will light the rocket aboard SS2, a solid rubber compound that is ignited by nitrous oxide.
\u201cThat\u2019s when the fun starts,\u201d says Mackay, a veteran of numerous such test flights as Virgin Galactic pushes toward commercial readiness. SS2 suddenly takes off like a Roman candle, heading straight up and subjecting passengers to four times the force of Earth-bound gravity.
Pushing speeds close to Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, SS2 will take roughly 60 seconds to reach the blackness of space, which officially starts at 50 miles up.
And then, almost instantly, silence as the rocket exhausts itself. SS2 then will gracefully pivot upside down, giving the new astronauts an unfettered view of the earth through 12 big portholes.
\u201cThey can then unbuckle and float around,\u201d he says of the few minutes of weightless that mark the defining moment of the trip. \u201cThen it\u2019s back in the seats and the flight back home.\u201d
For those waiting to board SS2, the moment of truth can\u2019t come soon enough.
Vivien Cornish, 54, was given a ticket to ride by her husband to mark her 50th birthday. The retired money manager from Sydney says she doesn\u2019t like cars or jewelry but has \u201calways been into adventure travel, and this is the ultimate adventure trip.\u201d
Cornish says she has met some of her fellow ticket holders \u2013 which Virgin Galactic calls Future Astronauts \u2013 at sponsored trips that so far have included group visits to the California headquarters, attendance at air races in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and a gathering at Branson\u2019s retreat on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands.
\u201cFor some people, it\u2019s all about the zero G experience, but for me it\u2019s about the Overview Effect,\u201d she says. \u201cEarth is wonderful and we have to look after it.\u201d
For businessman and philanthropist David Perez, 55, of Solano Beach, California, buying a ticket on Virgin Galactic was an instant impulse purchase.
\u201cWhat, there\u2019s 8 billion people on Earth but only a thousand have been to space, and I\u2019ll be the first Moroccan Jew in space,\u201d says Perez, laughing.
Like some of his fellow Future Astronauts, Perez has tried to make sure he stays in good shape for his eventual trip. Virgin Galactic says that anyone who is reasonably healthy should be eligible for the journey.
The most difficult parts of the trip will be the 4G force while ascending and the zero gravity experience in that it could make some travelers nauseous.
But, ultimately, it\u2019s up to customers, who no doubt will sign lengthy waivers, to try and be in the best condition possible to maximize their quarter-million-dollar trek.
\u201cWho knows if I\u2019ll blow up and die,\u201d says Perez. \u201cBut I just love being part of this community of people pursuing their passions and dreams.\u201d
Death has in fact visited the Virgin Galactic effort.
On Halloween 2014, test co-pilot Michael Alsbury lost his life when an early iteration of SS2 broke up in flight. Co-pilot Peter Siebold was seriously injured on his 10-mile fall back to Earth.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigation found that the craft, which was built by Scaled Composites, did not have enough safeguards in place to prevent the pilot-error incident.
Not far from Virgin Galactic\u2019s compound there is a small memorial for a half-dozen pilots who have died while testing in and around Mojave, California, a storied location where fabled Air Force ace Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947.
Next to a plaque with Alsbury\u2019s name and photo sits a bouquet of flowers, fresh like the memories of his tragic death.
\u201cThat was a terrible time for us,\u201d Mackay says quietly. \u201cBut now the morale is good. Mike was a lovely guy and he wouldn\u2019t have wanted us to stop. So part of the reason to continue testing was the sacrifice he made.\u201d
Mackay looks up at the cloudless blue sky. \u201cSpace isn\u2019t easy,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople have been dying in this pursuit from the get-go. So we\u2019re just building on the shoulders of those giants. They weren\u2019t crazy, but let\u2019s just say they had a different approach to risk.\u201d
After the crash, Virgin Galactic began using SS2s built by its Spaceship Company. Branson says Virgin Galactic engineers are relying on increasingly sophisticated technologies that build new levels of safety into a space launch.
These include ferocious rockets that nonetheless can be shut off if necessary and advanced composites that provide not only high levels of structural rigidity but also the critical bonus of spacecraft reusability that keeps space travel costs in check.
\u201cThat isn\u2019t to say that we can eliminate all risk or that getting to a point where it\u2019s appropriate to start flying paying passengers was ever going to be quick or easy,\u201d he says, adding that nonetheless \u201cwith patience and perseverance we will be capable of delivering a repeatable experience at levels of safety that both we and our customers require.\u201d
That buoyed optimism is met with some skepticism from David Cowan, a longtime space company investor with Bessemer Venture Partners in Menlo Park, California.
\u201cThe word tourism (in space tourism) belies the risk of early civilian missions,\u201d says Cowan, who maintains that one fatal accident will \u201cinevitably and episodically\u201d suspend ventures such as Virgin Galactic for months or years.
Cowan allows that Branson\u2019s \u201craw ambition and ego are authentic,\u201d and combined may well find Virgin Galactic able to achieve lift off.
But the investor is less bullish on an oft-mentioned by-product of Virgin Galactic\u2019s high tech efforts: The development of a 21st-century version of the Concorde that would allow supersonic travel from New York to Sydney in just a couple of hours.
\u201cThere are safer, cheaper and more practical supersonic programs underway to succeed the Concorde,\u201d he says.
Branson insists he\u2019d \u201clove to be a part of\u201d transcontinental travel that could reduce endless flight times while cutting down on the jet-fuel-pollution associated with such 15-hour journeys by Boeing or Airbus.
\u201cWe have been traveling around now at around Mach 0.8 using fossil fuels for more than half a century and it\u2019s time to seriously pursue faster and cleaner options,\u201d he says, adding that this is why Virgin Galactic designed SS2 as a \u201cwinged runway take-off and landing vehicle.\u201d
Standing next to SS2, the craft comes across as a hybrid of current and future tech. From the front, it looks like a Gulfstream private jet; from the rear, with its massive rear wing \u201cfeathers\u201d that help with rotation and re-entry glide, it seems like a Romulan Bird of Prey straight out of \u201cStar Trek.\u201d
But despite the far-out nature of the spaceship, personal touches abound here inside the giant hangar.
For example, painted on the side of this SS2 is a shapely model wearing a clear helmet, floating in space. The portrait is said to be based on a 1940s photograph of Branson\u2019s intrepid mother, Eve, now 94. (Eve is also the apt nickname for WK2, the mother ship that brings SS2 aloft.)
Next to the woman is a logo that clearly looks like an eye\u2019s iris; it is, in fact, an exact copy of the iris belonging to the late Stephen Hawking, who long maintained that space would be the only way for humans to escape extinction.
Just across the way from this parked vessel sit the fuselages of two more SS2s in construction, currently dubbed Etta and Artie, the names of Branson\u2019s twin grandchildren from his daughter Holly.
Between Etta and Artie and the up-and-flying Unity, Virgin Galactic will have three SS2s able to send a total of 18 people into space on a regular basis.
How regular? One flight a week could be possible soon, while the addition of a second WhiteKnightTwo and three more SS2s could allow for three flights a week.
But, company officials insist, nothing will be rushed. SS2 is continuing its regular test flights, with so far dozens being held to check its re-entry gliding ability and six with rocket power.
To date, the rockets have burned for as long as 41 seconds, working their way up to the 60-second burn required for Virgin Galactic\u2019s regular parabolic space flights.
\u201cWe are heads down on safety all the time, otherwise there\u2019s no business model,\u201d says George Whitesides, a former NASA chief of staff under the Obama Administration who joined Virgin Galactic as CEO in 2010.
\u201cWhat we are doing will only help the country\u2019s standing when it comes to space ventures,\u201d he says. \u201cThe U. S. leads the world in (rocket) launches, and give us a year and we\u2019ll be leading in human space flight. We will open space up for the rest of us.\u201d
And so the work continues here at Virgin Galactic\u2019s compound in the harsh quiet of the California desert. There\u2019s carbon fiber to bake, a spaceship interior to design and aircraft to test and retest.
But SS2 pilot Mackay can\u2019t wait for that moment he\u2019s given the green light to launch somewhere high above New Mexico.
With every trip into and beyond the stratosphere, he and his fellow pilots are seeing things that cannot be captured by any photo or video, images of space and earth that remain imprinted on his soul. He\u2019s eager to share that view, and see the looks on the faces of his fortunate passengers.
\u201cThe sky is a matte black, and the earth\u2019s surface is just so bright, and then you see the atmosphere, so thin, like the skin around an apple,\u201d says Mackay.
\u201cThat\u2019s when it hits you hard, we\u2019re all part of this human race,\u201d he says. \u201cYou see, if for a moment, where we humans are in the solar system and it is just, well, to be honest, it\u2019s a feeling I cannot describe.\u201d
Follow USA TODAY National Writer Marco della Cava: @marcodellacava
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