Virgin Galactic successfully tests re-entry, prepares for space tourism in 2014

Virgin Galactic successfully tests re-entry, prepares for space tourism in 2014

Virgin Galactic is one of the firms pushing ahead with plans to bringspace tourism down to affordable levels. The latest tests of VSS Enterprise, originally known as SpaceShipTwo, have successfully tested the craft’s deceleration mechanisms at higher speeds and altitude than had previously been evaluated. The Enterprise and her sister ship, Voyager, are larger, more powerful versions of the SpaceShipOne craft that won the Ansari X Prize in 2004.

Both Enterprise and Voyager are flown up to a height of about 50,000 feet (46,000 in this test). The advantage of launching from higher in the atmosphere isn’t gravity, but in air resistance and inherited delta-v. Launching from a standstill at ground level, into much thicker atmosphere, requires a great deal more propellant. In this test, the Enterprise fired her rockets in a 20 second burn — considerably less than the 70 seconds required for a full space flight, but longer and higher than she’s been before.

The purpose of this test was to check the performance of the aircraft’s feathering mechanism. The official chart below is a bit hard to make out — someone needs to talk to Virgin Galactic’s graphics designer about that — but the full version is a bit clearer if you click on it. The ship’s wings launch in one position for the rocket boost, but then rise to help the craft brake for orbital reentry. This was the first time we’d seen the mechanism in action at this speed, but by all accounts it worked flawlessly.

The stage is now set for the two spacecraft to begin flying starting in 2014. As of last month, some 640 people had signed up, at a price of $250,000 per person, to experience some six minutes of orbital weightlessness. Virgin Galactic’s current goal is to hit 1,000 customers for the experience, with the entire plane ride (including the launch) coming in at about 2.5 hours. The SpaceShipTwo craft are both short-range vessels, and return to land near their starting locations.

It’s hardly trips to the Moon, but with a maximum altitude of 110km, such trips will deliver on the promise of reaching space. Here’s hoping the price continues coming down. Virgin Galactic is expected to be the first company to offer commercial space flights but is, of course, just one of multiple companies working to bring down the cost of moving cargo and people into space.

SpaceX plans continue to move ahead as well, though Congress remains sold more on space exploration in theory than in fact. While the Space Launch System and Orion continue moving through the pipeline, there is yet no mandate or funding to send the craft anywhere — and no promise that the ISS will remain in orbit past 2020.