Confidence & transparency.
I'd fly with them.... if I had the $200K to spare!
Posted on 09/06/2013 3:21:28 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Yesterday, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo successfully completed its second supersonic rocket-powered test flight. In our previous article, we were able to share a video view of the flight — as seen from the ground. But now Virgin Galactic has shared the flight footage from a camera mounted on the tail of the ship, allowing us all to ride along and see the views. I’m hoping for they’ll eventually show a cabin view video so that we can see what the ride inside will be like.
The ship went to 69,000 feet (21 km, 13 miles) but you can still see the blackness of space and the curvature of Earth in the video.
Virgin Galactic Founder Sir Richard Branson said yesterday that commercial flights with passengers should begin in 2014 … which is next year, meaning that perhaps space flight for the rest of us is not always 5-10 years off anymore.
Amazingly stable.
“The ship went to 69,000 feet (21 km, 13 miles) but you can still see the blackness of space and the curvature of Earth in the video.”
69,000 feet? No one in the back there to join the 21 Mile High club?
Some Lear Jets have a service ceiling of 51,000 feet.
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And at what altitude do they say people experience weightlessness?
Do you mean weightlessness in microgravity when you are in orbit? Minimum altitude for orbit is about 100 miles.
Sub-orbital you can experience it flying in an airplane at pretty much any altitude when you are descending in a parabola.
Here’s an example in a small airplane. Keep your eye on the dog!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGO6VKAH_es
Another example in the KC-135 Vomit Comet with cats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjcdwY41jJE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvU9GZjBTzs
You can experience “weightlessness” at 10 feet... but just for a second. What you think of as weightlessness is simply the craft falling (accelerating towards the Earth at 9.8m/s^2, at its surface)... so you can experience it at any altitude. When the craft just happens to be moving forward fast enough that the surface of the Earth curves away just as fast as you fall towards it, you remain “weightless” indefinitely. We call that orbit. But you are never without weight, as you are still within the Earth’s gravitational field.
Confidence & transparency.
I'd fly with them.... if I had the $200K to spare!
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