Hyderabad: Sir Richard Branson, on Sunday, along with a full crew comprising of two pilots - Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, three mission specialists - Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennett and Beth Moses flew to the outer edge of space onboard Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity, opening up the doors for space tourism. Branson (70) also officially became the first billionaire to fly into space that too in his own winged rocket ship. It was also Unity's 22nd test flight with a full crew.
The complete journey takes 90 minutes which includes - climb, release, boost, zero-G, apogee, re-entry, glide and land. Spaceship VSS Unity was carried by WhiteKnightTwo (VMS Eve) from Spaceport America, an FAA-licensed spaceport spanning a massive 18,000 acres in the Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico. VMS Eve is a large aviation vehicle in service, capable of lifting unique heavy payloads at a high altitude.
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VSS Unity and the mothership (VMS Eve) made a horizontal take-off from New Mexico at 8.20 pm (IST) and ascended for around an hour to an altitude of 50,000 feet. The mothership then drops the rocket-powered spaceship VSS Unity, which would then blast off at Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound) to make it to the edge of space. On having reached the Mesosphere at an altitude of about 88 kilometres over the New Mexico desert, short of crossing the Kármán line (a boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space) wherein the rocket engine is switched off, and the passengers unbuckle and experience weightlessness for a few minutes in the blackness of space.
The unique design of the spaceship VSS Unity with 17 windows provides an exotic view of the Earth's curvature. Following which the pilots manoeuvre the vehicle’s wings to form a 'feathered' configuration that helps the spaceship perform re-entry. As VSS Unity is pulled by gravity back to the Earth, the pilots steer the vehicle back to its original position with the wings back to their normal configuration, ready to glide back to Spaceport America for a smooth landing.
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Having completed the successful space flight, the CEO of Virgin Galactic said, "I have dreamt about this moment since I was a child, but nothing could have prepared me for the view of Earth from space. We are at the vanguard of a new space age. As Virgin’s founder, I was honoured to test the incredible customer experience as part of this remarkable crew of mission specialists and now astronauts. I can’t wait to share this experience with aspiring astronauts around the world. Our mission is to make space more accessible to all. In that spirit, and with today’s successful flight of VSS Unity, I’m thrilled to announce a partnership with Omaze and Space for Humanity to inspire the next generation of dreamers. For so long, we have looked back in wonder at the space pioneers of yesterday. Now, I want the astronauts of tomorrow to look forward and make their own dreams come true.”
On being asked about how Earth looked atop from space, the UK entrepreneur termed the planet an "indescribable beauty". He had also tweeted, "How you feel when you look down on Earth is impossible to put into words, it’s just indescribable beauty. I can’t wait for you all to get up there."
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Virgin Galactic mulls two further flights, to initiate commercial operations from early 2022. The firm plans to carry out 400 such flights per year and reportedly 600 tickets have already been sold. With this successful flight to the edge of space, Virgin Galactic has opened up a new door to space for all.
Also, for the first time in space travel, a woman with Telugu roots travelled to an outer earth orbit, along with Sir Richard Branson. Sirisha Bandla who works as Vice President of Government Affairs at Virgin Galactic flew to space in the spacecraft 'Unity-22'. Sirisha's family hails from Andhra Pradesh and settled in Washington DC, USA. She graduated in aerospace and astronautical engineering in Washington and did her MBA from George Washington University. Sirisha had also held several key positions at Virgin Galactic since 2015.
