Edmund Ross

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• Edmund Ross

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Virgin Galactic is

• A revolutionary new company with ambitions to
  make public space flight common, and affordable.
  The company is owned and established by Richard
  Bransons Virgin Group Ltd.

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SpaceShipOne and White Night Carrier Aircraft
during test flight
October 4th, 2004
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Technology that makes affordable space flight
possible

• Newly developed Light weight materials that are
  ideal for the extreme journey from Earth to the
  very edge of space and back.
• The ability of the Space craft to Feather its
  wings to increase stability and control of the
  vehicle during reentry.
• The energy saving technique of mid-air rocket
  launch.

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The Testing Program

• A company named Scaled Composites, located in La
  Jolla California, was given the job of developing
  the first prototype space craft, SpaceShipOne,
  and carrier aircraft, White Night.

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SpaceShipOne Prototype compared to SpaceShipTwo,
the highly anticipated first commercial space
craft
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SpaceShipOne Mission

• SpaceShipOne has a journey of about 50 miles
  near vertical at Mach 3.06 with a 6 minute
  sub-orbital weightless flight, before gently
  gliding back down to Earth

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Achievements of the Program

• Won the Ansari X Prize on October 4, 2004 (by
  reaching 100 kilometers in altitude twice in a
  two-week period with the equivalent of three
  people on board). The project was rewarded 10
  million dollars for their success.
• First privately funded human space flight
• First privately funded reusable space craft
• First privately funded aircraft to exceed Mach 2
  and Mach 3

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The Future of Space Travel

• After rigorous testing with the SpaceShipOne
  project, the SpaceShipTwo craft is expected to be
  even safer then its predecessor. SpaceShipTwo
  will be the first non-government space craft to
  take ordinary citizens into sub-orbit

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Price to become an Astronaut

• To reserve your one, out of six, seat on the
  SpaceShipTwo during the first year of operations
  in 2009 will cost 200,000. However, the first
  year and beyond has already been sold out. Never
  the less, you can still attempt to book a flight
  at Virgin Galactics main website
  www.virgingalactic.com

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How high will you be?
Altitude (in feet) Aircraft or Point of interest
360,000 SpaceShipTwo
328,000 SpaceShipOne
180,000 Space Entry

100,000 Highest manned balloon flight
50,000 Commercial Airliners
29,029 Mt. Everest
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Spaceports

• The original place that the flights will be
  departing from will be the Mojave Spaceport,
  located in Mojave California. However, Virgin
  Galactic will establish their headquarters at
  Spaceport America located in New Mexico for all
  future flights.

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References

• To research this topic I used the following
  sources
• www.virgingalactic.com
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Galactic
• abyss.uoregon.edu/js/space/lectures/lec21.html
• http//www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct200
  4/nf20041015_2589_db039.htm
• http//www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid4835