£100,000 buys you Zero Gravity

July 30th, 2008

Back in April there were reports that Virgin and Google were joining forces to set up a human settlement on Mars. Unsurprisingly that turned out to be an April Fool joke but yesterday Virgin announced a new venture offering people the chance to visit space, no April fool.

I wonder how many people have dreamed of one day being able to go into space and feel Zero Gravity. Well now that dream could become reality. The British Billionaire, Richard Branson, has teamed up with designer Burt Rutal to produce ‘WhiteKnightTwo’, a high-altitude jet that will act as a mothership for the spacecraft SpaceShipTwo. The largest all carbon-composite aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo will take SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of about 50,000 feet before it is released. SpaceShipTwo will then propel passengers into space at nearly 2500mph, over 3 times the speed of sound, ultimately ending in five minutes of zero gravity. They will be able to see the beautiful curvature of the world and the blue hazy ring of the atmosphere, spectacular views. The ride home sounds just as exciting as the spaceship deceleration produces G-forces as you reenter the atmosphere and glide back down to earth.

The first trip could be as soon as 18 months time with the first 250 people all booking their place by paying £100,000. Richard Branson is so confident in the safety of this new venture that he and members of his family will be among the first passengers to fly. All passengers will need to undergo a pre-flight medical and will be expected to take part in 3 days of pre-flight preparation, bonding and training on site at the spaceport. No specialist training is required.

The Telegraph are reporting that Richard Branson plans to tie this in with his domestic US airline, Virgin America, where pilots from the airline will be trained to fly the spaceships. Frequent Virgin America fliers will be able to collect more miles so that one day they may be able to trade their airmiles in for a flight in space.

What an absolutely amazing experience to be able to tell your children and Grandchildren. As the technology advances maybe a trip to space could be something that we all might be able to afford one day.

Watch this promotional video for the full story of Virgin Galactic.

Entry Filed under: travel