Someday All Launch Pads will Look Like This!

[Dave Wallace]

Wow. We really are living in the future.

[Thom Young]

Virgin Galactic has successfully test-fired the rocket motor designed to boost a passenger spaceliner on suborbital rides into space.

The hybrid rocket motor would launch Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo spacecraft into suborbital space at speeds of over 2,500 mph (4,000 kph) to send ticket-carrying passengers soaring to heights of 65 miles (110 km) above the Earth.

This latest series of tests in the California desert follows flight tests for SpaceShipTwo's carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo, dubbed "Eve."

"SpaceShipTwo, which will air launch from Eve, is largely constructed and awaiting the start of its own test flight program later this year," said Sir Richard Branson, the British billionaire founder of Virgin Galactic.

SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry eight people--six passengers and two pilots--into suborbital space and back for about $200,000 a ticket

Unlike typical rockets, SpaceShipTwo would ride into the upper atmosphere under Eve's wing before igniting its own rocket engine to make the final ascent into space. That means the rocket motor only needs to burn for a short time period.

"This means much less fuel is required — fuel which provides none of the toxins that are present in the solid rockets used by the space shuttle and satellite launches," Branson noted.

He added that the spaceship's carbon footprint for each of its passengers and crew would be just a quarter of that for a return airliner trip from London to New York.

The hybrid nitrous oxide motor represents the largest of its kind in the world, designed by Virgin Galactic supplier Scaled Composites and its subcontractor SNC (Sierra Nevada Corporation). Safety features include the capability to shut down the system at any time, and permit the spaceship to glide back down for a conventional runway landing.

Virgin Galactic has already lined up $40 million and 300 people on its waiting lists for space tourism flights. They'll have to keep waiting for now, as flight testing for SpaceShipTwo is scheduled for later this year.

SpaceShipTwo is being built for Virgin Galactic by aerospace veteran Burt Rutan and his firm Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif. Rutan and his firm, with backing from millionaire Paul Allen, designed SpaceShipOne, an air-launched spacecraft that won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for piloted suborbital spaceflight.

[Thom Young]

Hundreds of onlookers are gathering in Las Cruces, New Mexico today (June 19) for the formal groundbreaking ceremony of Spaceport America, the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport.

The event is being billed as a major step in the history and future of spaceflight--with Spaceport America serving as a launch pad for a new era of commercial space, including the boosting of public space travel to the suborbital heights.

Weather and flight test program permitting, the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft is due to cruise by on a long duration sky hop from California's Mojave Air and Space Port over to Spaceport America.

That huge mothership craft, now undergoing an ever-expanding list of test objectives, is designed to eventually haul to drop altitude (50,000 feet) the six-passenger and two-pilot SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket plane of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceliner operations.

Huge Milestone

The sprawling inland Spaceport America is to be built on 27 square miles of land about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Truth or Consequences and 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Las Cruces.

"It's coming together," said Steve Landeene, Executive Director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. "It pays tribute to the folks that have put in decades of work for this day."

"The groundbreaking is an enormous milestone for Virgin Galactic which is investing over $300 million in developing the new space launch system which will operate at Spaceport America after it opens," said Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic. "We have a long lease at the Spaceport, and this groundbreaking event clearly signals the birth of a new commercial age in space."

Whitehorn also underscored the "huge milestone" given WhiteKnightTwo's projected appearance as the mega carrier craft--called Eve after Sir Richard Branson's mother--makes a soaring flyover of Spaceport America.

"This will be a record-breaking non-stop test flight for the world's largest carbon composite aviation vehicle, and will put her firmly in the record books," Whitehorn said.

Diverse Portfolio

Spaceport America is being geared to build the momentum for a lively commercial space industry. While Virgin Galactic is a key player in using the New Mexico facility, "it's not just about space tourism," Landeene emphasized, "it's about a brand new tool for scientific exploration . . . for light satellite delivery" and other purposes.

"We can't have a spaceport that just has a one-sided mission. Because if that mission has a hiccup, then we and this investment are going to have a very bad day," Landeene said.

Indeed, along with the Virgin Galactic partnership, there's UP Aerospace, the Rocket Racing League, Payload Specialties and Microgravity Enterprises, Inc., and others that are eager to make use of Spaceport America. For example, Lockheed Martin Space Systems near Denver, Colorado has already been testing new launch and recovery technologies within the grounds of Spaceport America.

"I see a paradigm shift . . . when we create this low-cost access to space. These are brand new tools that the U.S. government did not have to fund," Landeene emphasized.

Landeene said that the core facility at Spaceport America is targeted for completion by the end of 2010. From there, it will go into tenant improvement work, which could push the "grand opening ceremony" of Spaceport America into early 2011. The terminal hangar facility needs to be ready when Virgin Galactic is ready," he said, a structure that is the operational heart of the spaceliner firm and its storage of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo flight hardware.

Undertaking and completing the infrastructure is a catalyst for economic development, tourism and education, Landeene emphasized "The prime message is that Spaceport America is the gateway to space."

NOTE: You can watch the Spaceport America groundbreaking live via a webcast on Friday, June 19, 2009 at 11 AM (Mountain Standard Time MST) by going to:

http://www.spaceportamerica.com/

[Dave Wallace]

Another news story on space tourism:

'Clown' tourist blasts into space

Space tourist and circus entrepreneur Guy Laliberte has begun his journey as the "first clown to go into orbit".

The Canadian billionaire was aboard the Soyuz craft which blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS).

Mr Laliberte, who founded the Cirque do Soleil theatre company in the 1980s, reportedly paid $35m for his ticket.

He says he will make the ISS astronauts laugh during his 12-day stay, and produce a web event that highlights the issue of clean water for all.

He was accompanied in the Soyuz TM-16 spacecraft by Russian cosmonaut Maksim Surayev and US astronaut Jeffrey Williams.

The three-man crew is expected to arrive at the ISS on Friday.

The Canadian is the seventh private individual to make the trip. While previous tourists have emphasised science as a motivator, Mr Laliberte says his inspiration lies elsewhere.

"I'm an artistic person and a creator. I'm not a scientific. I'm not an engineer," he told the BBC this month.

"Life has given me some qualities, some assets and I have built up a team of very creative people around the world.

"With those people I think we'll present something that is originally creative and hopefully will have the result of sensitising people toward the situation of water in the world."

On 9 October he intends to lead a "poetical social" performance from orbit. The two-hour show will link up with contributions from 14 cities worldwide. The whole endeavour will be streamed on the web.

"I start with the simple idea of reading a poem, which will involve characters like the Sun, the Moon and a drop of water," he explained to the Associated Press this week.

"Those characters will then engage in a discussion, which will take the form of a little poetic story that we will read to the population of Earth."

Celebrities, including former US Vice President Al Gore and Irish rock band U2, are set to make appearances.

The purpose of the poem, written by Yann Martel, author of the Man-Booker prize-winning novel Life of Pi, is intended to emphasise the need for all the world's population to have access to clean water.

Opportunities for tourists to visit the ISS are likely to become extremely limited in future. The expected retirement of the US space shuttles in 2010/11 will mean all Soyuz seats are needed to maintain the resident station crews, which now number six individuals.

All the tourists have bought their tickets from the Russian Federal Space Agency through the marketing company Space Adventures.

[Thom Young]

Video of yesterday's launch of Ares I--the largest rocket ever. Notice the shock cone that forms around the upper third of the rocket at about the 1:18 mark--just as it would have been breaking the sound barrier. It's very cool:

http://www.space.com/common/media/vi...28_ares_launch

[Dave Wallace]

Very cool.

[Capt. Dallas]

Originally Posted by Thom Young

Video of yesterday's launch of Ares I--the largest rocket ever. Notice the shock cone that forms around the upper third of the rocket at about the 1:18 mark--just as it would have been breaking the sound barrier. It's very cool:

http://www.space.com/common/media/vi...28_ares_launch

That WAS cool! Thanks for the link, Thom! I wanted to watch this when I heard the Ares I is going to replace the Space Shuttle. Where's the crew capsule though? Is the upper third of the rocket the crew capsule? Or will the crew capsule be mounted onto the rocket?

[Dave Wallace]

Originally Posted by Capt. Dallas

That WAS cool! Thanks for the link, Thom! I wanted to watch this when I heard the Ares I is going to replace the Space Shuttle. Where's the crew capsule though? Is the upper third of the rocket the crew capsule? Or will the crew capsule be mounted onto the rocket?

The Ares shuttle will apparently have a capsule called "Orion" mounted on it, which will house the crew.

(Picture obtained from here.)

[Thom Young]

Originally Posted by Capt. Dallas

Where's the crew capsule though? Is the upper third of the rocket the crew capsule? Or will the crew capsule be mounted onto the rocket?

Yeah, as Dave indicated, the capsule will be mounted to the top of the rocket. This launch was just a test of the rocket without a capsule attached.

I think I posted a video a while back of the capsule's parachute system being tested. It was not a successful test. It would have killed the crew inside the capsule had it been manned.

[Thom Young]

Originally Posted by Thom Young

I think I posted a video a while back of the capsule's parachute system being tested. It was not a successful test. It would have killed the crew inside the capsule had it been manned.

Yep, here it is again:

http://www.space.com/common/media/vi...ute_test&mode=