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| | A privately funded and built rocket will attempt to fly into outer space this month, according to its creators. It will be the first time that a non-governmental spacecraft leaves the Earth's atmosphere. The ship is called Space Ship One and was created by Burt Rutan. Paul Allen, a billionaire, funded the project. The ship is designed to reach an altitude of 62 miles while flying over the Mojave Desert on June 21st. If successful, Space Ship One will be in competition for the Ansari X Prize, a contest that will award $10 million to the first reusable rocket capable of carrying three people into space and return the back to Earth in one piece. The ship will need to repeat the process in two weeks to receive the award. A number of private enterprises are said to be competing for the prize.
Presently, orbital flight is the best opportunity for space travel. However, the high cost of a "tour" has grown from 20 to 35 million dollars in eight years, which limits the number of people ready for such an adventure. However, the view of Earth from the side can be much cheaper, if a suborbital flight is organized.
On 21 June 2004, a manned spacecraft, which was constructed using private money, had attained the conventional 100 km boundary of atmosphere for the first time in history. The rocket plane Space Ship One (SS1) was launched at an altitude of 14 km from the aircraft carrier “White Knight” started the engine and flew almost vertically into the sky. As per the plan, it returned back on the runway of the airfield in the Mojave Desert after 24 minutes. This system was constructed by “Scaled Composites” under the guidance of the famous aircraft designer Burt Rutan. The key role in the success of project was played by main investor - American billionaire Paul Allen, co-owner of Microsoft, having invested from 20 to 30 million dollars in the project. On September 29 and October 4 of the same year, the system WK1 + SS1 completed two more suborbital flights, reaching an altitude of 112 km. Thus, it won the prize in the competition Ansari X-Prize, under which 10 million USD would be given to the first private firm, whose three seater spacecraft can climb over 100 km in two weeks time. But, even without waiting for the outcome of this historic flight, British billionaire Richard Branson, owner of the Virgin group of companies and a big enthusiast of space tourism, bought the technology of SS1 from Paul Allen on September 27, 2004. On the same day, Branson launched a new company - Virgin Galactic, which will become the first space "travel agent". The SS1 spaceship was not destined to fly again in the air. It was handed over to the museum and Burt Rutan’s team started developing a second-generation rocket Space Ship Two (SS2). On the order of the Virgin Galactic for 200 million USD, a five eight-seater (two pilots and six passengers) spaceships and two new carrier aircrafts “White Knight 2” should be constructed. If the ticket price is around 200 000 dollars, then the project expenditure can be covered only after fifty launches of each spaceship. The first two boost-glide aircrafts will be ready this year. They will be named “VSS Enterprise” and “VSS Voyager” in the honor of the famous spacecrafts from the "Star Trek" series.
According to Virgin Galactic, the suborbital flight starts off with the take-off of the aircraft carrier WK2. At an altitude of about 14 miles, SS2 will detach from the aircraft carrier WK2. A few seconds later, it will have a free fall while raising its nose upwards and then switches on its inherent engine and begins an almost vertical rise. Passengers of the aircraft carrier, for example, friends or relatives of the space tourists can watch the launch of the booster-glide aircraft.
The fuel gets consumed fully in about 90 seconds. By this time, the spaceship gains an altitude of about 50 km and a velocity of 4200 km/hr. A further rise continues by inertia. A few minutes later, after reaching an altitude of 110 km, the spaceship begins to gradually fall with acceleration. The state of weightlessness onsets during this ballistic flight. The state of weightlessness lasts for about 4 minutes (6 minutes is mentioned in the promotional materials, but this would only be possible if the spaceship attains an altitude of at least 200 km). Passengers can unfasten from the seats, float in the spacious cabin of the spaceship and enjoy the view of Earth from many windows, provided in the fuselage. Then, the pilots request the passengers to occupy the antigravity seats. Only 40 seconds are allotted for occupying the anti-g seats. But, just in case, if someone could not sit, the floor of the passenger cabin is made of soft material. This allows, though not too comfortably, surviving the descent, during which an acceleration of 6 – 7 g is achieved for a brief period. To understand this, imagine that six people of the same weight as you are lying over you.
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