Six Russians to take first Virgin Galactic space ride in 2010

[December]

Virgin Galactic is a company within Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which plans to offer sub-orbital spaceflights and, in the future, orbital spaceflights to the paying public.

http://www.channel4.com/life/media/0-9/4realvolvo/images/september/adventure/space/main.jpg


http://www.isitthefuture.com/DNN/Portals/0/images/Virgin_Galactic.jpg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Virgin_Galactic.png

Virgin Galactic's mission is to fly passengers who are not professional astronauts to an altitude slightly over 100 kilometers (62 mi) and allow them to experience weightlessness for up to 6 minutes. Each seat will be sold for US$200,000.
According to Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn, the company had sold nearly 200 seats as of November 2007.

The first flight is planned for 2009.

Virgin Galactic is aiming to be the first space tourism company specializing in the provision of sub-orbital flights to the public. While orbital flights can be made by budding space tourists through the Russian Space Agency, there are presently no operational craft capable of sub-orbital flight aside from SpaceShipOne. However, EADS is currently working on a competing sub-orbital craft. Given that SpaceShipOne was designed for a very specific task, Virgin Galactic has commissioned Burt Rutan to design a newer, bigger and better version of his suborbital craft, called SpaceShipTwo. It is this eight seater craft, seating 2 pilots and 6 passengers, which will be used by Virgin Galactic passengers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Galactic

http://www.virgingalactic.com

[December]

Six Russians to take first Virgin Galactic space ride in 2010

19:30 | 23/ 06/ 2008



MOSCOW, June 23 (RIA Novosti) - Six Russians are to be the initial clients of the world's first space travel agency, Virgin Galactic, which is to launch suborbital passenger flights in 2010.

Igor Kutsenko, who runs an advertising firm in Moscow, told a Virgin Galactic news conference in the Russian capital that he and his business partner, Sergei Tyaglov, had bought tickets 18 months ago, and that he had also reserved tickets for his parents, both in their fifties.

Tyaglov said: "I look to fulfilling my childhood dream."

They paid $200,000 each for a thrill ride to the edge of space on the SpaceShipTwo, the first commercial six-passenger space vehicle. They will blast off from a launch pad currently being built in New Mexico

Another businessman due to take part in the flight, Timur Artemyev, said: "In buying the tickets, my wife and I wanted to be the first couple to fly toward the edge of space."

The SpaceShipTwo, due to begin test flights this year, will take the passengers to an altitude of 110 km (68.3 miles) during a two-hour flight with a four-minute period of weightlessness, when passengers will be able to release themselves from their seats and float around the cabin.

The tourists are to undergo three days of intensive training before the flight.

A total of 250 people across the world, including 11 Russians, have booked tickets for suborbital flights with Virgin Galactic. Another 85,000 people have filed flight applications on the agency's website.

The founder of the Virgin Group, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, earlier said he and some of his family members would take a flight on SpaceShipTwo a year or so before commercial flights are launched.

A host of other companies are working on commercial passenger suborbital spaceflights, as the infant space tourism industry looks to take off. Virgin Galactic's most likely competitors include EADS Astrium, Rocketplane Limited, Space Adventures, and the Benson Space Company.

Russia is currently the only country which provides space flights for tourists. Flights blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. The trip, which lasts abound a week, costs around $30 million.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080623/111778580.html

[Pookie]

Oh my God, they are brave! I want to see that. Thanks, December.
I always felt that Russian Cosmonauts and our own astronauts are the bravest people on earth...except that they're not always ON earth, right? LOL!
I wish them all good luck. Branson is an interesting guy!
Purrs,
Pookie

[December]

Virgin Galactic (http://www.virgingalactic.com)

Virgin Galactic promotional trailer starring Richard Branson

YouTube - Virgin Galactic promotional trailer starring Richard Branson

Russia is currently the only country which provides space flights for tourists. Flights blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. The trip, which lasts abound a week, costs around $30 million.

RIA Novosti - Russia - Six Russians to take first Virgin Galactic space ride in 2010 (http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080623/111778580.html)

[Pookie]

We do that too. Remember the schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe on the doomed Challenger? But ya know, there are so many risks with tourists doing that.
I applaud Russia for making that work. Way to go, guys, and perhaps in time, we will get back to doing it as well.
I would like to see the day when we really do join together and have Russians on our shuttles and not in a competitive way. Working together.
The only two nations who have the space flight capability are Russia and the US.
We two are the most advanced.
I pray we will work together and make discoveries and explore new horizons together. We can learn much from the Russians, and they can learn from us as well.
Let's hope there will be improvements and changes, eh, December?
Purrs,
Pookie

[December]

This video for those who cannot affort to fly on Virgin Galactic

Fasten your seat belt!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBlifr6EQNU

Virgin Galactic (http://www.virgingalactic.com)

:)

[Truth_and_Power]

I applaud all those that work cooperatively on space ventures. The russians and their crew pods have been indispensible in the maintenance of the ISS.