Virgin Galactic hosted a live web event on Tuesday to debut the interior of SpaceShipTwo, which has been in development for more than 15 years and may now be a few months away from flying Virgin Galactic’s first group of wealthy thrill seekers, according to the company. But the company still has several test flights and regulatory approval to obtain before reaching that milestone, executives said Wednesday.
The mostly white interior of SpaceShipTwo will be empty, except for a small two-pilot cabin, up to six passenger seats, a series of windows, and a tinted mirror to allow passengers to see themselves as they float in their seats in microgravity. A network of 16 high-definition cameras, hidden in the walls of the cabin, in the cabin and outside the vehicle, will record the journey, aiming to capture “everything from the first Instagram posts to a beautifully staff historically significant and edited film, “according to a press release.
“That’s what our customers want,” George Whitesides, the company’s space director, told CNN Business’s Rachel Crane. “To capture all that experience [using installed cameras] It was really challenging, but I think [an] actually made design problem. “
galactic virgin (SPCE) He said the seats will be specifically designed for each passenger, a feature included in the cost of a Virgin Galactic ticket of more than $ 250,000. Retractable harnesses are meant to make the vehicle accessible to “anyone, whether they’re 80 years old or, you know, 20 years old and at the peak of their health,” Whitesides said.
The company, known for hosting lavish events for customers, also sent Oculus headsets to a group of reporters and some customers to provide virtual tours of the SpaceShipTwo booth, a spokesperson said in an email. (Reporters who received the headphones will return them to Virgin Galactic.)
It is unclear when the company’s first tourist flight will take off. And the Covid-19 pandemic could create further delays for Virgin Galactic, which has suffered numerous setbacks and setbacks, including a fatal crash during a 2014 flight test, since its founding by British businessman Richard Branson in 2004.
“I think we are doing as good a job as we can at this difficult time for all of us,” Whitesides said of the pandemic.
He added that Virgin Galactic employees take Covid-19 tests every two weeks and keep their distance while working. (The government deemed the commercial space industry essential in March, allowing Virgin Galactic to continue operating.)
The company also needs final approval from federal regulators before it can set a date for its first commercial flight. Whitesides told reporters Tuesday that Virgin Galactic is looking to do “one or two more [test] flights “in the coming months, building on two previous test flights that reached the space limit conducted in December 2018 and February 2019. Then, in a” final phase “of testing, the company will conduct at least one test mission with four “test passengers” on board with the pilots, Whitesides said.
The company now hopes to increase excitement among potential customers and the approximately 600 customers who have already purchased tickets, some of whom have waited years for SpaceShipTwo to be ready for commercial operations. Virgin Galactic, which debuted on the stock market in October 2019, is also preparing to sell a new batch of tickets that the company says will cost more than $ 250,000.
Whitesides said it took an “incredible amount of work” to design the interior of SpaceShipTwo, taking into account every detail, from “ambient lighting” to the fabric on the seat backs.
The custom seats will have patches of woven material with “heavenly” blues and blues paying homage to Earth’s ocean, according to Virgin Galactic. Some of the hardware will also be a gold metal to resemble the New Mexico desert, which is home to the spaceport where Virgin Galactic customers will gather before takeoff.
Each of the 12 windows in the plane’s passenger area will also be surrounded by a halo of light that will glow bright red during the one-minute engine start. At the peak of your flight, while SpaceShipTwo has no weight, the lights will go out and the cabin will be lit only by sunlight reflected from Earth. The windows will offer an expansive view of Earth’s curved horizon and a glimpse into the darkness of the cosmos, the company says.
“Everything is done [for] when that highlight happens, “said Michael Colglazier, a former Disney executive who was named CEO of Virgin Galactic earlier this month.
.
Related
