Space tourism company Virgin Galactic unveiled the luxury cabin design of its inaugural SpaceShipTwo vehicle, VSS Unity. The high-end design, created by Virgin Galactic in association with London-based design agency, Seymourpowell, offers a six-seater cabin decked out with 17 windows to provide the best possible view of Earth and the stars during trips to space.
In a livestream press conference, Virgin Galactic spokespeople explained that, in zero gravity, the honeycomb-style cabin interior will become a 360-degree climbing frame that passengers can explore during their precious few minutes of weightlessness. There is also a large circular mirror at the back of the cabin so passengers can view themselves floating, along with 16 onboard cameras for recording every moment of the journey.
The seats boast personal digital displays in the seatbacks for providing valuable data during flights (or, you know, maybe playing an episode of Modern Family if you get bored of staring out at the infinite void of the universe.) They will manage G-forces by reclining at different levels during the various phrases of space flight.
In the event that the SpaceShipTwo is used for transporting science experiments or equipment, the seats can be removed entirely and replaced with payload racks.
According to the designers, a blue and teal color scheme is used throughout the cabin to provide a “harmonious” link to the color of the spacesuits, as well as linking back to the colors of Earth as seen from space.
Founded in 2004 by Richard Branson, British spaceflight company Virgin Galactic aims to transport individuals to the edge of space in its SpaceShipTwo spacecraft. Last year, the company successfully carried out a test flight of three people — including one passenger. Earlier in 2020, the company also performed another test flight from its home base for sub-orbital flights, Spaceport America. It recently announced a partnership with NASA that will carry private astronauts and space tourists to the International Space Station (ISS).
Virgin Galactic aims to begin offering sub-orbital flights to paying customers over the next several years. These will reportedly cost in the vicinity of $250,000. Hey, at least you know you’ll have a comfortable seat for the journey, though!
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.