Virgin Galactic spaceplane reaches space with first passenger on board

[Eugene]

Source: The Verge

Virgin Galactic spaceplane reaches space with first passenger on board

Astronaut trainer Beth Moses tagged along for the ride

By Loren Grush Feb 22, 2019, 12:31pm EST

Tourism venture Virgin Galactic sent its spaceplane into space for the second time this morning, qualifying all three people on the flight for their commercial astronaut wings. One of those riders was Virgin Galactic’s first test passenger, Beth Moses, the chief astronaut instructor at Virgin Galactic, who flew along with the vehicle’s two pilots. She’s also Virgin Galactic’s first female flyer.

Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane, the VSS Unity, is designed to take passengers to the edge of space where they can experience a few minutes of weightlessness. But up until the end of last year, the vehicle had yet to breach Earth’s atmosphere. That changed in December when Virgin Galactic made history by sending VSS Unity to a height of 51.4 miles (82.7 kilometers), an altitude that many (but not all) consider to be the start of space. For those who adhere to that definition, it was the first time that people had launched to space from the US since 2011. As a result, the two pilots of the December flight received astronaut wings from the Federal Aviation Administration in early February.

Today, the company demonstrated that it was able to repeat that history-making flight path, with another test out of Mojave, California. As usual, VSS Unity was lofted to an initial altitude of around 45,000 feet by its huge carrier aircraft, WhiteKnight Two, where it was then released into the air. The two pilots of this morning’s flight, Dave Mackay and Mike “Sooch” Masucci, ignited the spaceplane’s engine and climbed to an altitude of 55.85 miles (89.9 kilometers), the highest the vehicle has gone yet. During the test, the vehicle reached a top speed of three times the speed of sound — the fastest ever for Virgin Galactic — before shifting its wings and gliding back to Earth to land on a runway.

This was the first time that VSS Unity carried three people, instead of just the two pilots, to space. Moses rode along in the cabin of the spacecraft and got out of her seat, in order to get a better understanding of the “customer cabin and spaceflight environment from the perspective of people in the back,” according to the company. Moses will be responsible for preparing future passengers for what to expect on flights, and today’s flight will provide valuable input for that. Her trip today also makes her the first woman to fly to space onboard a commercial vehicle.

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Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/22/18232354/virgin-galactic-vss-unity-spaceplane-test-spaceflight-passenger-beth-moses

[NNadir]

1. It's very nice that billionaires have cool toys, and that they can burn tons upon tons of carbon...

...to be weightless for a few minutes.

Over two billion people on this planet lack basic sanitation, according to the World Health Organization.

Lack of sanitation for 2.4 billion people is undermining health improvements

It's a big deal if we can figure out how to put sand around their latrines to prevent them from dying from fecal contamiantion: Sand Barriers around Latrine Pits Reduce Fecal Bacterial Leaching into Shallow Groundwater: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Coastal Bangladesh (Naser et al Environ. Sci. Technol., 2019, 53 (4), pp 2105–2113)

I'm sure the space plane has very cool toilets, but I wish we could be as excited about installing 10,000 toilets for people who've never seen, never mind operated one, as we can be about a few people playing astronaut.

I don't know why so many of us on the nominal left get so entranced with these billionaires, Musk, Branson, so on and so forth.

What good do they do?

Who gives a rat's ass about these people and their toys?

They will die like the rest of us, and return to mud and slime. History will not be kind.

[MadDAsHell]

2. Other countries don't need white saviors fixing their problems. nt

[Major Nikon]

4. ...

[TheBlackAdder]

5. I remember when Cranston sued established US businesses, because they had Virgin in their name.

.

He went after a few in NJ, who were in business for decades before he wanted exclusive use of Virgin anything.

He would sue them into bankruptcy or until they would change their name due to the legal expenses.

.