Philip A. Janquart NewSpace Magazine
Monday, October 25, 2010 - In December 2009, over 800 members of the press gathered at the Mojave spaceport in California, Virgin Galactic unveiled Spaceship Two, a company is defined as the first spacecraft in the world "spaceline."
Scaled Composites, the company develops business for Virgin Galactic, completed its first test glide 10th October Meanwhile, Virgin is conditionally setting its first flight with paying customers for 18 months from now. Citizens will experience five to six minutes before returning and landing suborbital flight, probably safe, the spaceport in the United States at White Sands, New Mexico.
when this happens, the space tourism is no longer a distant dream to be reality and the fact that companies are jockeying for position in the fledgling space tourism has sparked something of a private space race, though many would not karakteriziratistanje industry quite so way.
After all, haste makes waste, or, rather, accidents
.
"It's going to happen, it's just a matter of when,"said engineering professor Donald Plumlee, referring to rocket engineering almost unspoken truth: inevitable accidents
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"I love the idea of commercial space flight, but it is a risky investment because there are many possibilities for something going wrong, " he said. "I think that commercial spaceflight will be great at first, and then there will be an accident I hate to say it, but probably will be the question .. what would happen in that time?"
But many are not aware, or have already forgotten that the accident occurred, at the cost of three lives. On 26 July 2007, about 18 months before Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan engineer discovered a spaceship two, three Scaled Composites employees died during a rocket oxidizer cold-flow test.
accident did not seem to do much to slow the progress of industry, but what if an event comparable to Challenger and Columbia were to happen? Plumlee feeling to see the writing on the wall.
Clay Morgan's writing professor at Boise State University. He did research for Excalibur Almaz, working on their marketing plan, and he knows the story of space tourism is just beginning.
"I think that the first tourists, their training will be intense and so inclusive that they and their families will be aware of the risks,"said Morgan, who is the author of "The Shuttle-Mir: The United States and Russia Share History's highest degree. "
"I know the Excalibur Almaz, we talked about it (accident), and the astronaut crew - my wife (Barbara Morgan) was an astronaut -. accepts the risk of years before you fly But if a major accident happens, it will be great blow to the industry for sure. But, if competition remains, people still want to be able to go. "
There are, however, the facts point to the risks associated with spaceflight will not be quite as dramatic as it is for military or state flights.
"It was very hard won knowledge in the 50-s and '60 's, a lot of things that were put in the rocket are the things you have learned the hard way over the years, " said Plumlee, who also worked for Lockheed Martin on structural airframes for the Atlas rocket. "The basic structure of the Atlas is derived from the Redstone rocket, and was last modified over the years become an ICBM (Inter Continental Ballistic missiles) in the '60 's. Then, I think, they mothballed when it came around the space shuttle. But after the Challenger exploded, they still need time to space, so come back and redesigned it. "
Morgan testified that proven technology is the foundation on which most companies in the space tourism industry, building their programs.
shuttle in the 1960s, 1970-design, "he said. "avionics have changed, they just changed the insides. Excalibur Almaz has been the Russian technology, they know works."
And, companies like Scaled Composites, Boeing, Armadillo Aerospace and XCOR Aerospace are used to hard won knowledge, hiring veteran space flight technology, such as Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut, who is now Excalibur Almaz "executive vice president and director. Chiao has an impressive resume, having served as commander of the expedition on board X the International Space Station (ISS), among its many other tasks.
Morgan is confident in the private space industry, and even alludes to a very bright future.
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