Richard Branson Blasts Daredevils a Bit High, But Definitely Not Into Space
Richard Branson Blasts Daredevils a Bit High, But Definitely Not Into Space
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has kicked off its first-ever all-tourist trip into the upper atmosphere, but not space.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
The mission, dubbed Galactic 02, saw the company's "spacecraft" VSS Unity rocket to an altitude of just 49.7 miles, or roughly 262,000 feet, after being released from an airplane down below.
To put that figure into perspective, the US Air Force awards pilots "astronaut wings" as when they fly above an altitude of 50 miles.
To be clear, that's still well within the confines of the Earth's upper atmosphere, or mesosphere, a roughly 22 miles-thick band at which meteors burn up and high-altitude clouds can still form.
Even that line was arbitrarily chosen by leaders back in the 1960s and falls dozens of miles short of an altitude at which it's feasible to enter a stable orbit around our planet.
As a result, the crew on board the Galactic 02 was only able to feel the effects of weightlessness over a couple of minutes because the vehicle was rocketing back towards the ground at fast speeds — not because it was orbiting the Earth, or what amounts to constantly falling in the absence of air resistance.
Branson's other space venture Virgin Orbit is also on the rocks, having laid off 85 percent of its staff and filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
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As a result, the crew on board the Galactic 02 was only able to feel the effects of weightlessness over a couple of minutes because the vehicle was rocketing back towards the ground at fast speeds
To be fair, that is also what orbital "weightlessness" is. Really long freefall.
.3 miles off of astronaut wings and a hell of a lot of money for the privilege. Oof.
They've since corrected it:
Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that the max apogee of the flight was 49.7 miles. In fact, the VSS Unity reached a max altitude of 55 miles.