Virginaught or Not

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You may have noticed the brief flurry of articles in the terrestrial news about Virgin Galactic after Richard Branson unveiled the mock-up of SpaceShipTwo at Wired Magazine’s NextFest a few weeks ago.
It’s hard to know how to take this news. Is it a small step for publicity, or is it a giant leap mankind? Well either way, I was one of the lucky few who walked around the interior cabin of the SpaceShipTwo concept model at NextFest. The cabin design is exactly what I used to think the future should look like. Now that I’m finally in that future, I’m not disappointed.
Walking around the cabin concept model is probably the closest I’ll ever get to going in space. Although, in the year 2020, I would like to book passage to the moon with one of the many private space companies that will be offering Lunar Vacations. I would like to be there to welcome the crew of NASA’s Project Orion when they finally make their next landing. I’m sure that will be quite a party.
In addition to the seeing the cabin concept, another highlight of NextFest was attending the "Virgin Galactic, Cleared for Take-off" panel discussion. It was moderated by Adam Rogers from Wired, with Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic, Stephen Attenborough, Head of Astronaut Relations for Virgin Galactic, Alex Tai, the VP of Operations for Virgin Galactic, and Brian Binnie, the pilot of SpaceShipOne who won the X Prize, and earned his seat in the Miller Lite, "Man Laws" commercials.
Brian Binnie kicked off the discussion by describing his remarkable flight experience with SpaceShipOne. Unfortunately, they couldn't get the video part of his presentation to work. With all of the thousands of parts and components that must perform flawlessly during a space flight, I hope none of critical components will involve video.
One of the key Virgin Galactic Executives (right now everyone in that company is a key executive) said that Virgin Galactic will be able to translate the incredible flight experience that Brian Binnie described during his presentation into a commercial offering. Virgin Galactic will provide a "full spectrum experience from fear to fun". For me the fear part would surely start when the pre-launch video that prepares you for take off fails, and would only end once I returned safely to earth. I like the fact that the Virgin Space Program is designed to maximize the customer experience. Where else can you, in 4 minutes of zero G, tumble past large round windows enjoying the full majesty of the Earth? So far, over 200 people have already booked their passage, and many more have expressed an interest.
As a further example of out-of-the-oblate-spheroid thinking, Branson is preparing to launch "Astronaut Idol" with the BBC and ITV (it’s that dangerous mix of video and rockets again). Assuming the show takes off, you too can apply for a chance to become the next Galactic Space Idol, and win the rocket ride of your life. If you don’t have the new and improved right stuff to be a reality astronaut, then there are still plenty of other routes into space. For example, you can cash in 2 million Virgin frequent flyer miles for a flight, or if you don’t want to spend all your miles on one small vacation, Neiman Marcus is offering a 6 person space trip charter package for $1,764,000.00.
The Neiman Marcus offering would be great opportunity for you to document your pioneering space flight for all of history. All you would have to do is purchase a ticket for a web cartoonist, as part of your 6 person crew, to document your adventure.
With the Astronaut Idol and all the other high profile publicity seeking gimmicks, it is easy to disregard the Virgin Galactic venture. However, I learned at NextFest, that Virgin Galactic and associated companies like Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites are making a considerable investment in developing new lightweight composite materials and innovative spacecraft designs. Also, Branson is working to develop highly efficient fuel technologies, and has just contributed $3 billion for this effort. These contributions should lead to low cost space missions with significantly reduced environmental impacts. Many of these technologies may be scalable to larger and longer missions. I was told at the Virgin exhibit booth that governments won’t develop these technologies. It will ultimately be up to private industry to do so. Perhaps Branson is the right guy, at the right time, with the right vision, and the right mix of PT Barnum and Christopher Columbus to make this happen. Perhaps the market will grow to the point where "there’s a Virginaut born every minute … and two to fly ‘em’".
The future of commercial space missions will go one of two ways. Either low cost access to space will open up to large numbers of us, or it will remain highly restricted. The way the world is going it might be a good idea to book early and become a Virginaut while you can, and don’t forget, bring me along. – korba.

In the Picture:


Row 1:
NextFext Banner inside the Javits Center
Row 2:
"Virgin Galactic, Cleared for Take-off" panel discussion moderated by Adam Rogers of Wired, with Adam Rogers from Wired, with Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic, Stephen Attenborough, Head of Astronaut Relations for Virgin Galactic, Brian Binnie, the pilot of SpaceShipOne who won the X Prize, and Alex Tai the VP of Operations for Virgin Galactic.

Brian Binnie, Alex Tai
Row 3:
Interior shots of SpaceCraftTwo Cabin Concept Model
Row 4:
SpaceCraftOne and SpaceCraftTwo Cabin Concept Model at the Virgin Galactic Booth
Row 5:
SpaceCraftTwo Concept