Window Opens For Virgin Galactic Test Flight From Spaceport

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The window has opened for Virgin Galactic’s first rocket-powered test flight from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico as the company prepares for commercial flights next year, but the exact timing of the launch will depend on the weather. Virgin Galactic posted on social media that the flight crew is ready but do not plan to fly before Saturday. “We have range clearance through the weekend and can extend into next week if necessary,” the company tweeted. “Evaluating high-level winds and turbulence. Stay tuned for updates.” The flight was initially planned for November. But it was pushed back because of COVID-19 restrictions stemming from the state’s public health orders. CEO Michael Colglazier said the company has minimized the number of people onsite at its headquarters at Spaceport America in accordance with state mandates and that only spaceport staff critical to the mission will be present.

Officials with Virgin Galactic and the state-financed spaceport said the test flight will mark another key milestone in the march toward commercial flights. The impending flight will be the third space flight for Virgin Galactic and the first from New Mexico. “We are thrilled about hosting the first human spaceflight from New Mexico. This is an incredible moment for the entire state,” Scott McLaughlin, the spaceport’s interim executive director, said in a statement. It has been years since British billionaire Sir Richard Branson and then Gov. Bill Richardson hatched the idea of erecting the world’s first purpose-build spaceport in a remote stretch of the New Mexico desert. Branson will be among the first passengers sometime in the first quarter next year. More than 600 customers from around the world have purchased tickets to be launched into the lower fringes of space where they can experience weightlessness and get a view of the Earth below.

The suborbital flights are designed to reach an altitude of at least 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) before gliding to a landing. In addition to those who have put down deposits for a ride with Virgin Galactic, several thousand more have registered their interest online. The test flight will give Virgin Galactic an opportunity to evaluate the interior space of the cabin where customers will be seated and to check fight controls during boost. The flight will carry payload belonging to NASA as part the space agency’s Flight Opportunities Program. Chief Pilot Dave Mackay and co-pilot CJ Sturckow will crew the spacecraft during the test flight. Assuming everything goes well and the engineers sign off, Virgin Galactic can then move to the next phase, which will involve company mission specialists and engineers being loaded into the passenger cabin. They will evaluate all the hardware, camera settings and which angles will provide the best views. With the upcoming flight, Sturckow will become the first astronaut to have flown into space from three different U.S states. Before joining Virgin Galactic, he completed four flights to the International Space Station during his time as a NASA astronaut. He also was in the cockpit during Virgin Galactic’s first flight to space in December 2018. “In the months leading up to this flight, our engineering and maintenance teams have been working hard to prepare both our mothership, VMS Eve, and SpaceShipTwo Unity for the flight,” Sturckow said in a recent blog post. “It will be great to validate that their efforts have been highly successful to prepare the SFS (space flight system) for this flight and subsequent test flights.”

Travelore News: Sir Richard Branson Shelves Virgin Oceanic Tourist Submarine Project

It is one of the world’s last frontiers and has seen fewer human visitors than the moon. And that – for the time being at least – is how it shall stay.

Sir Richard Branson has shelved plans for a submarine to take tourists to the bottom of Pacific’s Mariana Trench, after technical problems hobbled the grand ambitions of his much-trumpeted Virgin Oceanic project.

The news is a second blow to Branson’s adventurer dreams in a matter of months, after a Virgin Galactic space rocket crashed on a test flight in California’s Mojave Desert, killing a pilot.

Virgin Oceanic’s DeepFlight Challenger was launched in 2011 with the entrepreneur’s familiar fanfare. Under the plans, wealthy passengers or “aquanauts” up would pay up to $500,000 (£318,126) for a five-dive package labeled as “the last great challenge for humans”.

As well as exploring the Mariana Trench – a 36,000ft-deep abyss is deeper than Mount Everest is tall, with access so risky and complicated that it has had just three human visitors since its formation nine million years ago – the submarine was due to dive the Puerto Rico trench 28,000ft below the surface of the Atlantic, the Molloy Deep in the Arctic, South Sandwich Trench in the Southern Ocean and Diamantina trench in the Indian Ocean.

But yesterday the Sunday Telegraph reported that Deepflight, the company contracted to build the submarine, could not support the project because their vehicle could only be safely used for one dive.

The underwater mission appears to have stalled indefinitely. The Virgin Oceanic website – which had promised “five dives, five oceans, two years, one epic adventure” – no longer exists, reportedly taken down earlier this year.

In the time since Branson announced Virgin Oceanic, Titanic director James Cameron has become the first human to travel solo to Mariana Trench in the Deepsea Challenger, a submarine he co-designed. Mr Cameron spent more than three hours at the bottom in 2012, longer than the 20 minutes Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard spent during the only other visit 52 years ago.

A Virgin spokesman confirmed the original plan for five ocean dives using DeepFlight Challenger had been scrapped. “We were not sure [DeepFlight Challenger] would make it down. That project has been put on ice while we look at other technology that works.”

In a statement on the Virgin website, Branson said: “Starting new ventures takes a ‘screw it, let’s do it’ attitude and finding the right partners to help us achieve the unthinkable… However, business is also about knowing when to change tack.

“We are still highly passionate about exploring the bottom of the ocean. However, we are now widening the focus and looking for new technology to help us explore the ocean.”

Branson is still waiting for the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board investigation into last month’s SpaceShipTwo disaster.

This Hotel Will Host The First Virgin Galactic Space Passengers

COURTESY HOTEL ENCANTO DE LAS CRUCES

Sir Richard Branson's recreational space travel company Virgin Galactic is real—and it's really happening—with flights expected to start next year. (They were supposed to take off in 2010, and then in 2013, but this is space travel so we expect some delays.)

While we wait for the first guests to pay $200,000 to blast off into space, here is a piece of hotel news we can get excited about now: Virgin Galactic has selected The Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces, a Heritage Hotel, to be the "official preferred Virgin Galactic hotel and resort." Previously, Virgin Galactic had hoped to partner with a luxury brand to build a new resort, but this is much easier.

The Encanto is in Las Cruces, New Mexico, about 60 miles from Spaceport America, where the Virgin Galactic flights will take off. Already, the hotel has begun to undergo renovations to accommodate the high-flying guests. Several rooms are being remodeled as Executive Suite VIP Wings with VIP everything—including concierge service, customized room service menus, and artisan-built furniture designed by Adriana Long, who has something "timeless and luxurious" in mind.

Renovations will continue through early 2015, with additional poolside terrace rooms and new outdoor spaces planned. No word on how much a VIP Wing will cost, but c'mon, if you can afford a $200,000 flight into space just for fun, does it matter how much a hotel room costs? Meanwhile, for those not space-bound, regular rooms start at around $90 a night.

This article originally appeared on HotelChatter.com.

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