Virgin Galactic rocket ship forerunner of hypersonic travel

Bud Russo, For the Sun-News
Mike Moses, president of Virgin Galactic, speaks on the topic “We Open Space to Change the World for Good” on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016, during the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.

LAS CRUCES - A "hypersonic space line," or a transportation system that would transport people halfway around the earth in a matter of hours, isn't science fiction. It's a science being perfected in part at Spaceport America, according to Michael Moses, president of spaceport tenant Virgin Galactic.

Virgin Galactic announced Thursday, before Moses spoke on the second day of the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight, that the former senior vice president for operations would now oversee the company's human spaceflight program.

Following his speech, Moses spoke exclusively with the Sun-News.

“It’s a hard thing to ask for patience from people who’ve ponied up tax dollars to help us get here. But, at the end of the day, we’re coming. We’re not stopping. Sir Richard’s not going to give up on this," Moses said, referencing the company’s delay and founder Sir Richard Branson’s commitment to fly passengers to the edge of space in its SpaceShipTwo rocket.

Virgin Galactic was supposed to launch flights from Spaceport America, in southern New Mexico, several years ago. Area taxpayers paid about $219 million to get the spaceport going. But a series of minor setbacks and a major spacecraft crash during testing in October 2014 set the company back years.

“It’s never easy to develop technologies that have never been tried before,” Moses said. “And it often takes more time than anyone anticipates.” 

The replacement spacecraft is undergoing flight testing. Moses said. As soon as spacecraft’s safety is assured, Virgin Galactic will be relocating to Spaceport America to commence flying the several hundred passengers who have signed on to become astronauts — a title bestowed on people who have flown more than 62 miles or 325,000 feet above the earth — and have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a two-hour ride. 

Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines, has invested more than $500 million in Virgin Galactic. His plans include more than building a rocket ship to give rich people rides into space.

“Sir Richard’s real vision is building a sub-orbital, point-to-point transportation system,” Moses said. “He wants to have the first hypersonic space line.”

Virgin Galactic’s tourism flights from Spaceport America are a means of proving technologies and gaining experience from flying multiple times. Each time SpaceShipTwo flies, taking six passengers into sub-orbital space, it will generate more than $1 million in revenue, cash that underwrites some of the investment.

If Branson’s vision is fulfilled, people will be able to fly at hypersonic speeds — that’s more than 5,000 mph — from Dallas-Fort Worth to London in two hours or from Los Angeles to Sydney in under four hours.

George C. Nield, Associate Administrator, Commercial Space Transportation, FAA joins in a panel discussion about Space Traffic Management on Wednesday, October 12, 2016, during the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) conference.

According to Dr. George C. Nield, Federal Aviation Administration’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation and another speaker at ISPCS, a lot of people are thinking about and working toward point-to-point transportation through space. “However, the technology to do that doesn’t appear to be there today,” he said.

Nield thinks there will be significant advancements toward this new era of flight within 10 years.

“Just think about how short that time frame really is,” he said. “Ten years ago, in 2006, we were still flying the Space Shuttle, and I don’t think anybody had any idea that, at this point in time, we would be relying on private industry to take food, clothing, and scientific experiments to the International Space Station.”

Today, there are 10 spaceports in the United States licensed by the FAA, a sign of a growing industry.

“I think in ten years, we’ll see technologies being proven and some flights beginning," Moses said. "However, I don’t think hypersonic point-to-point flights will be available for consumers for at least 20 years.”

Bud Russo is a freelancer writer and can be reached at BudRusso@comcast.net.

International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight

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