Space tourism, now one step closer to reality

Although there hasn’t been a lot of movement on the 2 Guys 1 List front in the past few months, I haven’t forgotten about it.  Let’s just say things remain in the planning stages.

One of the more “out-there” items on Grant’s list, the “Go to space” entry, has come one step closer with the very recent announcement coming from Virigin Galactic:

After five years of secret construction, the cloak is coming off a privately funded spacecraft designed to fly well-heeled tourists into space.

The long-awaited glimpse of SpaceShipTwo, slated for rollout Monday in the Mojave Desert, could not come sooner for the scores of wannabe astronauts who have forked over part of their disposable income for the chance to float in zero gravity.

Virgin Galactic.  SpaceShipTwo.  The whole story abounds with awesome band names.  But I digress.

Although SpaceShipTwo has been revealed, don’t start lining up to purchase your tickets yet.

Flight testing of White Knight Two has been ongoing for the past year. The first SpaceShipTwo test flights are expected to start next year, with full-fledged space launches to its maximum altitude by or in 2011.

It remains unclear when Virgin Galactic customers will receive their astronaut wings, but it will largely depend on how the test program fares. Some 300 clients have paid the $200,000 ticket or placed a deposit, according to the company.

Sigh.  I can see it now.  Climbing aboard SpaceShipTwo and blasting off for a couple of weeks of R&R on the International Space Station.  Pure bliss.

Wait.  What do you mean that’s not how it will be?

Virgin Galactic plans to operate commercial spaceflights out of a taxpayer-funded spaceport in New Mexico that is under construction. The 2 1/2 hour trips — up and down flights without circling the Earth — include about five minutes of weightlessness.

SpaceShipTwo will be carried aloft by White Knight Two and released at 50,000 feet. The craft’s rocket engine then burns a combination of nitrous oxide and a rubber-based solid fuel to climb more than 65 miles above the Earth’s surface. After reaching the top of its trajectory, it will fall back into the atmosphere and glide to a landing like a normal airplane. Its descent is controlled by “feathering” its wings to maximize aerodynamic drag.

That seems a lot less like “space tourism” and a whole lot like “catch a fleeting glimpse of space.”   But, I suppose, it is a place to start.

And a well funded start, too:

Virgin Galactic expects to spend more than $400 million for a fleet of five commercial spaceships and launch vehicles.