Do you know .... suborbital space flight

Categories: Do You Know?

By 2008 one can travel into space for a ticket price of just US$200 000. This will be made possible by Virgin Galactic, a company established by Richard Branson's Virgin Group to undertake the challenge of developing space tourism for everybody.

The spacecraft will be piggy-backed on a mothership, White Knight Two, which will take off most likely from a site in New Mexico. At about 10 miles (16000 km) above sea level, the craft will be released and accelerates to 4G speed - a speed that is faster than a bullet. Passengers will be able to see the cobalt blue sky turn to mauve and indigo and finally black... and then one will experience weightlessness!

Where does space begins? It is generally accepted as 62 miles (100 km) above sea level. As the altitude increases, the atmosphere gradually thins so there is no actual tangible boundary between Earth's upper atmosphere and Space.

As a comparison:

Altitude                Object
238794 miles (384000 km)Moon
22300 miles (36000 km)  Communication satellites
200-250 miles(320-400km)Space Station
115-400 miles(185-640km)Space shuttles
62 miles (100 km)       Space starts(see photo)
55000 feet (16700 m)    Concorde jet aircraft
36000 feet (11000 m)    Commercial airliners
29028 feet (8800 m)     Height of Mt Everest

Virgin Galactic spacecraft will bring passenger to a suborbital distance of 80 miles (128 000 km). Suborbital flight is defined as a mission that flies out of the atmosphere but does not reach speeds needed to sustain continuous orbiting of the earth. At such height, passengers can see the brilliant curvature of the earth as they would from orbit and experience weightlessness.

If you wanted an actual orbital flight, or if you have US$20 million to spare, why not join Dennis Tito, the first space tourist. At this price, you get to spend eight days in space and live aboard the International Space Station and travel approximately 120 orbits of the Earth (over 3 million miles). This trip is organised by the appropriately named Space Adventures.