Space Adventures is not the only player in town. Virgin Galactic also offers space enthusiasts the opportunity to travel to the Earth's outer reaches. Richard Branson, Paul G. Allen and Burt Rutan have teamed up to create a new class of traveler who wants to "hurtle through the edges of the atmosphere" and "see the cobalt blue sky turn to mauve and indigo and finally black...Out will come the stars, clear and bright... even though it is daytime!" And what is the power source? Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and rubber, which Virgin Galactic claims is much safer than liquid propulsion systems or solid fuel rockets. And it seems folks are interested. Morethan $10 million has been collected from future passengers, and the waiting list includes William Shatner and Stephen Hawkings. The plan is to procure five spacecraft and send more than 700 people into space the first 18 months. Again, new ideas for the future. Let's give NASA and others a run for their money.
Wednesday, February 15
VSS Enterprise
Space Adventures is not the only player in town. Virgin Galactic also offers space enthusiasts the opportunity to travel to the Earth's outer reaches. Richard Branson, Paul G. Allen and Burt Rutan have teamed up to create a new class of traveler who wants to "hurtle through the edges of the atmosphere" and "see the cobalt blue sky turn to mauve and indigo and finally black...Out will come the stars, clear and bright... even though it is daytime!" And what is the power source? Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and rubber, which Virgin Galactic claims is much safer than liquid propulsion systems or solid fuel rockets. And it seems folks are interested. Morethan $10 million has been collected from future passengers, and the waiting list includes William Shatner and Stephen Hawkings. The plan is to procure five spacecraft and send more than 700 people into space the first 18 months. Again, new ideas for the future. Let's give NASA and others a run for their money.