Nieco szczegółów o planowanym locie. Ma on być zrealizowany przez 1-go z czterech operatorów mających w tym roku wysyłać kosmicznych turystów, choć nie wszyscy odbędą lot orbitalny.5 things you should know about Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed spaceflightEmilee Speck Published: July 9, 2021 1:54 pm Updated: July 9, 2021 4:48 pm
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CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer are piloting the mothership and will land back on the runway while SpaceShipTwo continues on. (...)
SpaceShipTwo pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci will use the spaceplane’s hybrid rocket motor to push up through the sound barrier after about six seconds. The spaceship will then reach the edge of space at about 300,000 feet above Earth, about 55 miles up. (...)
At this point the passengers will be able to unbuckle from their seats and experience weightlessness, looking through
17 windows down on Earth. (...)
The whole experience lasts under an hour from take-off to landing with
a few minutes for weightlessness. (...)
The FAA issued its first Commercial Astronaut Wings to pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie on April 1, 2004 for their flight in Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne. (...)
The winged rocket ship will soar from New Mexico _ the first carrying a full crew of company employees. It will be only
the fourth trip to space for Virgin Galactic.
SpaceShipTwo will be piloted by Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci.
Four mission specialists, including Branson, will be on board VSS Unity. The other mission specialists include Beth Moses, Colin Bennett, Sirisha Bandla, all of whom work at Virgin Galactic. It will be the first spaceflight for Branson, who turns 71 this month, as well as Bennett and Bandla. (...)
Moses, Virgin Galactic Chief Astronaut Instructor, will serve as the cabin lead overseeing the test flight objectives. Bandla will handle a plant experiment from the University of Florida and Bennett will evaluate cabin equipment and procedures during the flight.
Meanwhile, Branson will be acting in the role as a Virgin Galactic “private astronaut,” experiencing the flight like their paying customers will.
“The Company will use his observations from his flight training and spaceflight experience to enhance the journey for all future astronaut customers,” the company said in a news release. (...)
The Late Show host and comedian
Stephen Colbert will host the live stream after an invite from Branson. (...)
The live stream will include views of the liftoff and from inside the cabin, which contains
16 HD cameras. (...)
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