By Tom Chivers
Courtesy of Telegraph. co.uk
The Virgin Galactic - Scaled Components SpaceShipTwo, which should launch in early 2010 Photo: VIRGIN GALACTIC
For a mere $200,000 (£120,000), wealthy funseekers will be able to enjoy a few minutes' weightlessness, staring out at the curve of the Earth from under a black sky.
Currently in the final stages of construction, SpaceShipTwo is expected to make its first test flights in the early months of 2010.
A small, rocket-propelled, shuttle-like vehicle around the size of a light aircraft, SpaceShipTwo will be carried to 50,000 feet above sea level – 20,000 feet higher than most airliners – by its mothership, WhiteKnightTwo.
Once there, SpaceShipTwo's own rocket engine will fire, launching the little ship to the boundary between the atmosphere and the vacuum of space at three times the speed of sound. After the engines are cut off, they will enter free-fall, experiencing total weightlessness for several minutes.
WhiteKnightTwo has been undergoing flight tests since December last year.
So far 300 people have paid in full for their ticket, while a further 82,000 have registered their interest on Virgin Galactic's website. The engineers behind the craft refer to the rich, middle-aged people who are their target market as “Brads and Angelinas”, according to Wired.com.
The new craft is the descendant of SpaceShipOne, the first ever privately funded manned space vehicle. Scaled Components, the company which built both ships, won the $10 million (£6 million) X Prize for being the first non-governmental organisation to reach space.
ICON A5 going strong
Courtesy of ICON
Since the FAA’s dramatic regulation changes in 2004 created the new Light Sport Aircraft category, ICON Aircraft’s sole purpose has been to bring the freedom, fun, and adventure of flying to all who have dreamed of flight. With these ground-breaking FAA rules solidified, ICON believes that consumer-focused sport aircraft can do for recreational flying what personal watercraft did for boating.
ICON’s sport aircraft are not only designed to deliver an amazing and safe flying experience, but also to inspire us the way great sports cars do. After years of development with some of the world’s best aerospace engineers and industrial designers, ICON Aircraft has released the first of its line of sport planes, the ICON A5. The A5 is a bold yet elegant design that communicates beauty, performance, safety, and most importantly… fun.
ICON was founded in 2005 by Kirk Hawkins. Hawkins, a graduate from the Stanford Business School, is an accomplished engineer, former U.S. Air Force F-16 pilot, and long-time motorsport enthusiast. With its world-class team of engineers, designers, advisors, and investors, ICON is located in Southern California – home of the world’s largest concentration of both aerospace and automobile design resources. ICON’s engineering and development team came from Burt Rutan’s famed Scaled Composites, which created such record setting projects as Voyager, Global Flyer, the X-Prize winning SpaceShipOne, and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.
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