Rigmanden Richard Bransons rumselskab Virgin Galactic has successfully launched the first manned turistrumfartøj to the atmosphere and brought it back to the California desert by a test flight today.
the Spacecraft “SpaceShipTwo” is Thursday sent well over 80 kilometres up in the atmosphere to the edge of the room. There were two pilots and a mannequindukke by the name of Annie on board by the flight.
There has now paved the way for commercial spaceflight in a big way.
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A larger aircraft brings SpaceShipTwo up to around 13 km altitude, before the spacecraft to switch on its own jet engine and continues under its own power. Photo: AP.
A 90-minute trip with Virgin Galactic will cost 250.000 dollars (1,64 million dollars).
Over 600 people have already paid a deposit for a trip. Among them is actor Leonardo DiCaprio and pop star Justin Bieber.
Branson has over the past 10 years given the promises of trips to the room, which has not been fulfilled.
In October he said in a tv interview, that the virgin’s first commercial space flight with him on board would be ‘in the course of some months and not years’.
But there are other companies, which is in the spring. Among them Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin and Elons Musks SpaceX.
Musk also has plans for flights to the Moon and Mars.
