Spaceflight company Virgin Galactic has recently unveiled the interiors of the region where tourists for flights into space will prepare themselves. The structure referred to as “Gateway to Space” is located within Spaceport America and it contains regions wherein passengers will put on necessary gear for space flights along with sector for mission control. The completed interior work implies that now Gateway to Space is functionally ready to host the last portion of Virgin Galactic’s test flight before taking on its first batch of human travelers and astronauts into space.
CEO George Whitesides expressed satisfaction to press reports at the event about how they are now operationally ready to start their space flights. The space flight system comprises of WhiteKnightTwo which is a carrier aircraft and also SpaceShip Two which is a space plane capable of carrying six passengers. When the WhiteKnight2 lifts off from the runway it will be able to haul up the spaceship to an altitude of 50,000 feet and from that point onwards SpaceShip2 will be able to propel itself into suborbital space with the power of its rocket motor. During this flight the passenger within the space plane are likely to experience weightlessness and see beautiful view of the earth against inky blackness of space. After this short trip the passengers will return back to earth and will make a typical runway style landing.
Every ticket on the SpaceShip2 for suborbital trips presently costs $250,000 and representatives of Virgin Galactic say that above 600 people have already paid deposits to reserve their seats. The firm has already started its test flights and they have already made trips to suborbital space in December 2018 and also in February this year. Five of its pilots Mark Stucky, Dave Mackay, Mike Masucci, CJ Sturckow and chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses have already got wings as “commercial astronauts”. They lifted off from Mojave in California during first flights but final test campaigns will be done from New Mexico.