Virgin Galactic is a space tourism company founded in 2004 and the company’s main motto is to provide a space ride to its customers in 2022. Virgin Galactic is the world’s first space tourism company and it made its first fully crewed rocket-powered test ride on July 11, 2021. One of the passengers on board was the company’s founder billionaire Richard Brandson. Virgin Galactic is about to make the space travel fantasy into reality in the near future. Richard Brandson achieved his dream after spending 17 years on Virgin Galactic development. Read on to know the fascinating facts about the Virgin Galactic spaceship.
Facts about Virgin Galactic Space Flights
- All the Passengers of the Virgin Galactic spaceship will earn official astronaut status by the US government once reaching the 50-mile mark.
- The company founder and three other employees rode on a test flight and it marked the first time a spaceship company owner traveled on his own ship to outer space.
- Virgin Galactic test flight was flown by Mike ‘Sooch’ Masucci. He graduated from the US air force pilot training academy in 1986 and he has flown more than 70 different types of aircraft.
- The company plans to operate five SpaceShipTwo planes in a private passenger-carrying service.
- Every passenger will get a window seat and can view space for 10 miles in each direction. The windows are said to have 13-inch and also 17-inch skylight windows above each seat.
- Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson had a competition between commercial space travel. Branson won the race and Jeff Bezos traveled nine days later.
- It is said that more than 600 have reserved seats at $250,000 and have been waiting for years to fly.
- During the space flight, the passengers can be able to unbuckle the seats and can experience weightlessness.
- Not everyone will be suited for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space travel. The passengers must undergo different varieties of training and physical tests.
- Stephen Hawking was offered a free trip on Virgin Galactic. Hawking accepted this offer and he even started training to take this spaceship but unfortunately, he died in early 2018.
- The number of customers who paid money to fly on Virgin Galactic is more than the total number of people who have been to space so far.
- Abu Dhabi’s businessman had invested 1 billion dollars in the space venture company.
- Richard Branson loves adventure, he was the first man to cross the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in a hot air balloon.
- The Virgin Galactic uses a solid propellant rocket that generates around 70,000lb of thrust.
- The spaceship will be carried by a mothership called The White Knight Two. It is a custom-built plane and it separates 50,000 feet. Both together weigh about 31.7 tons.