n Almaz Reusable Re-entry Vehicle (RRV), like this one shown here, will form the cornerstone of a private orbital spaceflight service planned by the international company Excalibur Almaz. The vehicle was originally developed to support Soviet Almaz space stations in the 1970s. Credit: Excalibur Almaz.
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An international company announced plans to launch a commercial space venture using spacecraft designed for a once classified Russian space program. Excalibur Almaz Limited plans to offer week-long orbital space flights beginning as early as 2013 with updated 1970’s era Reusable Return Vehicles, designed for flying to the USSR’s top-secret Almaz space station. Excalibur Alamaz’s press release said they would be “taking a big leap beyond the sub-orbital flight market targeted by most other private space companies.”
Excalibur Almaz (EA) is currently updating the spacecraft to conduct crew and cargo space missions for private individuals, corporations, academic institutions and national governments.
JSC MIC NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia originally built the spacecraft and EA has purchased both the rockets and modules for the Almaz space station, which was never flown. The RRVs went through nine flight tests, with two RRVs flown to orbit several times.
EA Founder and CEO Art Dula said, “Through cooperation with NPOM and with the support of leading space contractors around the world and an exceptionally strong management and advisory team, EA is in a unique position to initiate a new era of private orbital space exploration.”
Cosmonaut Vladimir Titov, advisor to EA in Russia, said, “With this announcement, the dream of private orbital space exploration may become a reality in the very near future.”
Former NASA astronaut LeRoy Chiao, a current member of the Augustine Commission, is the Executive Vice President for EA.
EA is headquartered in Isle of Man, British Isles, and support contractors are located in Moscow, Tokyo, Houston and Los Angeles.
EA’s spacecraft will consist of two parts: an RRV and an expendable service module to provide crewmembers with room to comfortably operate during spaceflight. EA said they will “update the Almaz RRVs with flight-proven technologies where appropriate, while retaining tested legacy systems to ensure safety and economy of operation. A critical feature of the RRVs is their reusability, which will reduce logistical, overhead and program costs for commercial access to space.”
EA plans for its spacecraft to be compatible with a number of launch vehicles and capable of being launched from worldwide sites.
The XCOR X-Racer Prototype, built for the Rocket Racing League was flown at the AirVenture 2008, and XCOR just released a couple of videos. This is an onboard camera split view from one flight and its a lot of fun to watch. The pilot is Richard Searfoss, Astronaut (former) and Col. USAF (Ret.), and the Flight Test Engineer is Mark Street.
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Want to launch something into space? You can now do just that for only $8,000 USD. The rocket company Interorbital Services (IOS) is offering their “TubeSat Personal Satellite Kit” that can carry 0.75-kg into orbit. The price includes a launch into low Earth orbit on an IOS NEPTUNE 30 launch vehicle to 310 kilometers (192 miles) above the Earth. TubeSats are designed to be orbit-friendly, and not contribute to orbital debris by being in a self-decaying orbit. Launches are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Interorbital says a TubeSat is designed to function as a basic satellite bus or as a simple stand-alone satellite. Each TubeSat kit includes the satellite’s structural components, safety hardware, solar panels, batteries, power management hardware and software, transceiver, antennas, microcomputer, and the required programming tools. With these components alone, the builder can construct a satellite that puts out enough power to be picked up on the ground by a hand-held HAM radio receiver. Simple applications include broadcasting a repeating message from orbit or programming the satellite to function as a private orbital HAM radio relay station. These are just two examples. The TubeSat also allows the builder to add his or her own experiment or function to the basic TubeSat kit.
Possible experiments include Earth imagery, measuring the orbital environment, tracking something like migratory animals, testing hardware or software in the space environment, or doing on-orbit advertising.
There are two different payment options. If you pay the full cost upfront, you will be placed immediately placed on a launch manifest according to the order in which the payment was received. If you pay half the cost upfront, and then pay the other half of the cost at a later date, you will be placed on a launch manifest according to the time when full payment is received.
Attendees at the AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin were treated with watching Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo take flight. On board the mothership — which will launch space tourism and science customers into space — was none other than Vigin’s founder Richard Branson. “This was one of the most incredible experiences of my life,” Branson said after the flight. “It’s a beautiful aircraft to fly and its incredibly light carbon construction and efficient design points the way to a much brighter future for commercial aviation as well as the industrial revolution in space which I believe our entire space launch system heralds.” Continue reading “Watch WhiteKnightTwo Take Flight (Video)”
Noah Fulmor and Erin Finnegan flip in float as they say their 'I Do's' in weightlessness with ZERO-G. Credit: Reuters
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A couple flew like Superman and floated upside down to say their wedding vows on Saturday, as Zero Gravity Corporation hosted the world’s first-ever weightless wedding. Noah Fulmor and Erin Finnegan were married on June 20 among family and friends who were all on board ZERO-G’s G-FORCE One, a specially modified Boeing 727. Officiating the wedding was Richard Garriott, the sixth private explorer in history to go to space, and the first second-generation U.S. astronaut. “I am honored to be taking part in Erin and Noah’s wedding. I know firsthand the added thrill microgravity will play in their already joyous event,” said Garriott. “The excitement from these first ever microgravity nuptials will not soon fade in the minds of all the members of the wedding party.”
The plane flies in parabolas to provide 20-30 seconds of zero g at a time. Over the span of nearly eight minutes, the vows and rings were exchanged in a microgravity environment. The aircraft’s interior has padded floors and walls and video cameras to record the the experience. Fulmor and Finnegan by G-FORCE ONE. Credit: Reuters Virgin Galactic and Rocketplane Global have announced they plan on offering space weddings when their respective spaceplanes head to suborbital space, (Virgin Galactic hopes to begin their public flights to space in 2010) but for now, ZERO-G is the only way to experience true weightlessness without going to space.
Before starting a parabola, G-FORCE ONE flies level to the horizon at an altitude of 24,000 feet. The pilots then begins to pull up, gradually increasing the angle of the aircraft to about 45° to the horizon reaching an altitude of 34,000 feet. During this pull-up, passengers will feel the pull of 1.8 Gs. Next the plane is “pushed over” to create the zero gravity segment of the parabola. For the next 20-30 seconds everything in the plane is weightless. Next a gentle pull-out is started which allows the flyers to stabilize on the aircraft floor. This maneuver is repeated 12-15 times, each taking about ten miles of airspace to perform.
Fulmor and Finnegan are both space enthusiasts, and both wanted to be astronauts as children. Erin attended space camp in Michigan, while Noah volunteered at his local planetarium. Although they are currently living relatively earth-bound lives, the idea of space came up again following their engagement in 2008.
“When we started talking about marriage, Noah joked that we should have our wedding ‘in space,'” Erin said. “Although most girls would take this to mean Noah didn’t want to get married, I knew he was sincere, and that this was a serious request.” ZeroG_Wedding. Credit: ZERO-G
The wedding took place in the skies above Florida. ZERO-G has flights that depart from Bristow Air Center in Titusville, Florida, the Shuttle Landing Facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida and from the Signature Air Terminal at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Spaceport America designed by URS/Foster + partners. Conceptual image courtesy Vyonyx Ltd.
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The western United States used to be known as the frontier, and now that region will provide access to the final frontier. On June 19, ground will be broken in New Mexico for Spaceport America, the world’s first commercial spaceport built for launching private citizens into space. Groundbreaking ceremonies will include a flyover by Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo, the mothership that will send tourists on their way to space in SpaceShip2. Virgin Galactic will be the first – if not most important — tenant of Spaceport America, and already more than 250 people have put money down to take trips to the edge of space as early as next year.
Spaceport America’s runway is scheduled to be completed next summer. The terminal and hangar should be ready for tenants in December 2010, when Virgin Galactic hopes to begin taking tourists to space. White knight Two. Credit: FlightGlobal.com.
Competitors such as XCOR Aerospace and Armadillo Aerospace are developing spacecraft for $95,000 flights. And as flights become more routine, costs should drop.
Five miles from the terminal is a launching pad for 20-foot rockets used mostly for science experiments, which has been operational for the past two years.
If you are in the Las Cruces/ Truth or Consequences, New Mexico area, check out Spaceport America’s website. The groundbreaking ceremonies are free and open to the public.
Artist concept of the Ares 1-X launch. Credit: NASA
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At a session today from the International Space Development Conference going in Orlando, Florida, the CEO of the commercial space company XCOR Aerospace had a few suggestions for all the eager space enthusiasts out there concerning test flights. In so many words Jeff Greason said everyone needs to chill out about the results from initial test flights. Of course, he was talking about all the test flights taking place with commercial space endeavors, but with the Ares 1-X getting ready to head to the launch pad for its first flight test, scheduled for August, perhaps we all need heed Greason’s advice and let the experts do their jobs.
Greason said in the past when they first started testing their early designs, “no one knew where Mojave was, we could test all sorts of strange things, and people would not be Twittering and blogging about what we did every day. But now it’s going on under a glare of publicity.” Jeff Greason. Credit: XCOR
While he appreciates the interest everyone is showing in the nascent commercial spaceflight industry and how people are watching with great enthusiasm and consuming every scrap of news, he is not exactly thrilled with tone of some of the commentary on what is being said on commercial flight tests.
“It’s called flight test for a reason,” Greason said. “You find problems, you always do. Any airplane you’ve ever ridden on had problems turn up on flight test program. Some of the most successful aircraft programs in history had a ridiculous number of problems show up in the flight test program. There is no correlation whatsoever between whether you or not you have problem in the flight test program and how good the finished product is. But there is a huge correlation whether you fix the problems you find in flight tests. ”
Greason said it isn’t helpful for journalists and the public to jump on every glitch and issue that comes up in every mission and say the sky is falling. “Just wait until flight tests to finish and by then there should be an answer. I see lot of blog posts three minutes after a flight test, saying the sky is falling. Stuff happens. So, I have a plea for the knowledgeable people out there: When you’re neighbor says ‘The sky is falling,’ tell them, ‘No, it’s just flight tests.”
Greason said flight tests are designed to find the problems and allow the engineers to fix the problems. But they take time. “That’s why I or anyone else never commits to how long flight tests lasts. Flight tests take as long as it going to take. When you fix the problems, that’s the end of the flight test program.”
Greason said he knows everyone is enthused because they want to see the missions happen, but every vehicle is a “new beast with their own design issues.”
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If flying to the International Space Station has been one of your lifelong dreams, don’t give up hope just yet. While NASA and even the Russian space agency have been warning that with the increase in crew size on the ISS, there won’t be room for any space tourists on board the Soyuz crew exchange flights, Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures held a news conference on Friday to let everyone know the space tourist game is still on. “Space Adventures is very much looking to continue providing orbital space flight opportunities to the ISS, even as the logistical and crew situation continues to evolve,” Anderson said. “We plan to do this in two ways. First, via privately funded Soyuz missions; fully dedicated flights of the Soyuz with two seats available for private spaceflight. That program is moving full steam ahead and we anticipate first flight of that profile could launch in 2012.” The second option, Anderson said, is that they anticipate the 3rd seat on board the Soyuz could become available occasionally.
“The third seat will mostly be used to facilitate the expanded crew size, but there might be sets of circumstances where the third seat is available,” Anderson said. “It’s too early to tell for sure, but we believe this will be possible in the future.”
Anderson said Space Adventures has also received new information, about the possibility of a seat opening up on Soyuz TMA 16 flight, scheduled for Sept. 16, 2009. “We’ve learned from Roscosmos that the seat may not be used by cosmonaut from Kazakhstan, and they are considering another spaceflight participant, or another Russian cosmonaut. It’s too early to confirm whether such an opportunity firmly exists, but I mention it because it is a distinct possibility. ” Aydyn Aimbetov is the Kazak cosmonaut in question.
Asked who could be ready on such a short timeframe, Anderson was vague, but mentioned Esther Dyson, and Nik Halik, who have both trained as back-up spaceflight participants could possibly be candidates.
Anderson said Space Adventures has many exciting things planned on board the ISS over the next few years, and hope the continued prospect of short term stays by private citizens will continue to be part of that.
While the Russians have at times been hard pressed to come up with enough Soyuz spacecraft for the two crew exchange flights needed per year, Anderson said he’s confidant that by 2012 the prospect of adding more Soyuz flights is reasonable.
“Historically, there have been many times in the past where Russia has launched more than two Soyuz flights a year,” Anderson said. “We believe the more people we have traveling to the ISS the better it is, for everybody. It is a good thing for private citizens to be able to visit this wonderful space station from time to time.”
Anderson even hinted that the crew rotation logistics for professional astronauts from the countries participating in the ISS partnership could be in flux. “The crew size could go up and down from the base-line planning of six, due to budgetary questions, and questions of how long each astronaut stays on station,” he said. “We believe there’s the likelihood of these flights opening up from time to time.” Space Adventures client Charles Simonyi, currently on board the ISS. Credit: Space Adventures
Asked if he anticipate increased cost of the tourist flights, Anderson said yes. “Costs have definitely been going up and I expect those trends to continue. Inflationary factors have driven up the costs and I expect that to continue.”
Anderson said there has been steady interest from the public in spaceflights to the ISS, despite the economic downturn. “The times we’re in, of course we are being affected by the economic crises. No company in unaffected, but the kind of person who indicates to us they are interested in flying to space is an long-term thinker, and people who have had a lifelong interest in going to space doesn’t allow an economic downturn to change their mind. It’s a multiyear process for this to happen, and there is still a deep-seated interest from the public. As things turn around, I’m sure we’ll see an uptick in interest.”
Anderson said Space Adventures has been excited about Charles Simonyi who is currently on board the ISS during his second flight, and that his stay has been extended by a day due to weather.
“He has been quite busy with mission activities, supportive of the ISS professional crew, and volunteered to assist crew with their duties,” Anderson said. “At this point we’re proud to have been provided the six private individual people with these seven flights; to provide them the opportunity to fulfill their dreams of flying to space. I remain proud of Space Adventures and all our partners and am excited about what the future holds.”
Source: Space Adventures telephone conference 4/3/2009
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The mothership for Virgin Galactic’s commercial space flights recently completed its third successful test flight, going faster and farther than any previous flights. The WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) flew for over two and half hours, at a maximum speed of 140 knots and an altitude of over 18,000 ft. “This is a truly remarkable aviation vehicle,” said test pilot Peter Siebold, “and, although it might look unique from the ground it is not strange to fly in any way and is in fact a great piloting experience. Now the stratosphere is the limit as we will continually test Eve (WK2) for the next few months up to her ceiling of above 50,000 ft.”
A video of WK2 and the flight is available below.
The flight also saw a 7 other tests successfully completed including in flight engine restarts, engine thrust asymmetry assessment and continued expansion of WK2’s operating envelope and evaluation of WK2’s handling qualities.
In addition to launching SS2, the WK2 also has a range of science payload and training applications including the potential to launch an unmanned rocket capable of putting a satellite into low Earth orbit.
“This is a fabulous airplane, it really is,” said Burt Rutan, founder of Scaled Composits, who built WK2. “It showed its potential today. We’ve got a couple of minor things to work on, but in general its going to do its job very well.”
WhiteKnightTwo in flight. Credit: Virgin Galactic
“It really has performed flawlessly,” said Wil Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic. “You’d expect far more glitches in any normal experimental program. It looks like the guys at Scaled have got it right the first time.”
WK2 is the world’s largest all carbon composite aircraft and many of its component parts have been built using composite materials for the very first time. At 140 ft, the wing spar is the longest single carbon composite aviation structural component ever manufactured.
An all carbon composite vehicle allows for better fuel efficiency. The twin fuselage and central payload area configuration allow for easy access to WK2 and to the spaceship for passengers and crew; the design also aids operational efficiencies and turnaround times. WK2 will be able to support up to four daily space flights, is able to carry out both day and night time operations.
Hawaii wants to have space tourism companies on the islands for faster transportation (NASA/Ian O'Neill)
[/caption]Private spaceflight companies seem to be getting closer and closer to the dream of launching a new breed of tourist on sub-orbital sightseeing tours. Since the late ’90’s the company Space Adventures has been sending millionaires on “trips of a lifetime”, but their most popular destination, the International Space Station, will stop hosting spaceflight participants at the end of this year as the Russian Soyuz spaceship wont have any more spare seats (as the crew on the station increase from three to six).
However, there are other private spaceflight companies beginning to realise the profits that could be made in space, not by dropping people off on the space station, but by launching them on short sub-orbital joyrides. They are building their own spaceships and even before the first rocket has ignited, there is growing competition for a piece of the space tourism market. Ticket prices have tumbled from the tens of millions (for a few days in orbit) to $200,000 (for a couple of hours on board a Virgin Galactic flight) to $95,000 (on board XCOR’s Lynx spaceplane for 30 minutes).
So, where should these companies launch their space tourists from? Although the space above the Mojave and New Mexico deserts are likely to be thundering to life within the next few years, a slightly more exotic destination is currently vying for a position in this burgeoning industry. Hawaii could be perfectly located not only for suborbital tourism, but for a revolution in global travel…
“Space tourism is the next generation of humankind reaching for the stars,” said Jim Crisafulli, of the Hawaii State Office Aerospace Development.
The official is obviously referring to the conventional take-off and landing spaceplane designs by the likes of Rocketplane Global’s XP Vehicle and XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx. The XP, for example, uses conventional aircraft jet engines to attain a certain height and then the onboard rocket engine takes over, quickly taking the passengers to an altitude of 100km, allowing a few minutes of weightlessness. Judging by the Hawaii news source, the Hawaii officials appear to be referring to Rocketplane Global, as the online video shows an animated movie of the XP taking off much like a conventional jet.
“What these are, are basically converted jet aircraft that take off and land at airports like normal jet aircraft. But once they get up to about 30,000 feet fire a rocket at the back of the plane, and this will take it up 62 miles,” Crisafulli added.
However, before you get caught up in dreams of sipping your Mai Tai on the beach, watching the palm trees sway with deep blue Pacific water lapping the golden sands of Maui, only to see a spaceplane rip through the skies, the Hawaii authorities have to justify the cost of an expensive Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) licence to allow a Hawaii spaceport.
Although tickets to space are getting cheaper, the first flights will still be expensive. After all, who has nearly $100,000 to $200,000 to spend on a short suborbital flight? However, optimistic estimates place a price of $5,000 per ticket in 5-7 years when these spaceplanes are bigger, carrying up to 100 people into space.
“I know that’s still a little pricey, but to be able to experience space in the process is just tremendous and we think there will be a fairly significant market for this,” said Crisafulli.
Apparently four US spaceflight companies have approached Hawaii with requests to do business in the centre of the Pacific Ocean, so it appears the space visionaries think there is money to be made in this exotic location.
There may also be another, more practical reason for pushing to gain FAA approval for suborbital flight; it could revolutionize transportation to and from the isolated US state. “Having a flight from Hawaii to California maybe take 1 hour or 90 minutes, and a flight from Hawaii to Japan could take less than an hour,” said Senator Will Espero.
