NEW YORK CITY, New York USA — It is one thing to know that a new day is coming in the space industry. It's quite another to witness an extraordinary preview of it. This past week I had the opportunity to spend the better part of a day (and night actually) with the Virgin Galactic group as they unveiled their latest plans for suborbital space tourism.

With me was Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham, his wife Dot, and my colleague Deb Martin. Walt and Dot were in New York for business meetings with us at LAUNCH.  Although the Cunninghams had already made arrangements to visit on January 23 and 24, it was an added bonus when Richard Branson and Virgin decided to schedule their news conference, and a party, at the same time.

So it turned out that Walt and Dot were able to attend all the Virgin Galactic events with us. We joined a packed audience at the American Museum of Natural History for the unveiling of the latest plans for SpaceShipTwo and its mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo. The crowd included reporters, of course, but there were also nearly 100 of Virgin Galactic's space tourists in attendance. These are people who are paying $200,000 each for a seat on the first flights.

Artist's concept of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo at apogee.

It was a glitzy, high-tech show, led by Branson and Burt Rutan, the legendary founder of Scaled Composites, and the man in charge of designing and building the spacecraft at the center of Virgin Galactic's plans. Also on hand were the entire Scaled and Virgin teams and their pilot, Brian Binnie. The presentation included dramatic videos and remarkable 1/16th and 1/32nd scaled models of SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo (You'll see an article on these models in a future issue of LAUNCH.) Television screens were everywhere as well, and the thought crossed my mind that we've entered a new universe of space marketing.

Also attending was George Whitesides, who as executive director of the National Space Society, is our business partner in a new agreement to publish NSS's official magazine, Ad Astra. George also serves as senior advisor to Virgin Galactic and helped emcee the event. I was particularly pleased that George recognized Walt in the audience. The packed crowd gave him an ovation. Branson also came over after the conference to thank Walt for attending,

Walt has this thing about these space tourists calling themselves astronauts. "They're passengers, not astronauts," he likes to say. But later that evening at a reception and party that lasted into the night at the Hayden Planetarium, we all laughed when one of these "astronauts" came up to Walt and asked, sincerely, "What number are you on the list?" As if Walt were one of the paying passengers. He got a kick out of the question, and turned to me, laughing, and joked, "I should have said I was Number 19!" Of course, most of the guests instantly recognized Walt and hurried over to speak with him.

Artist's concept of Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo together on ascent.

The party itself went on for hours. It was what I would call "a first-rate crowd," including NASA officials, X PRIZE Cup chairman Peter Diamandis, astronauts (real ones as well as the space tourists who call themselves astronauts), and media representatives. And of course, the planetarium is an outstanding venue.

If you're one of the many people who have been waiting for years to see public interest rise in space travel again, you have to be encouraged by what Branson, Rutan, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Robert Bigelow and others are doing.  No matter how fast the technology is coming along, it requires slick, professional marketing to get the public interested. And trust me, that marketing is coming soon.

"This is a system that will allow thousands of people to realize their dreams," Branson told the audience gathered at the news conference. "The first generation space tourists, many of whom are with us today, will be paving the way as they marvel at our planet and experience the weightlessness and blackness of space. This is truly a historic occasion."

Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham on hand at Virgin Galactic's unveiling of their latest space tourism plans.

The new Virgin Galactic design focuses on a system that not only will ferry tourists into suborbital space, but will also allow their families to "see them off" from the vantage point of the WhiteKnightTwo carrier ship. The four-engine aircraft, with a wing span as wide, according to Rutan, as a B-29 bomber, is designed with essentially three cabins-two fixed on either side of the wing and the third, SpaceShipTwo, mounted in the middle before being dropped and launched at high altitude on its way to 68 miles above the Earth. SpaceShipTwo will include a crew of eight-two pilots and six passengers. These tourists will spend about 4.5 minutes in weightlessness. Although Branson's video shows them floating freely about the cabin, you have to wonder how six passengers-not accustomed to spaceflight-are going to be able to return to their seats and strap themselves in, all in under five minutes. We'll see.

Virgin Galactic officials said flight testing would begin in Mojave, California this summer, and operational flights could come as early as 2009 or 2010. But Virgin's Will Whitehorn was quick to point out: "We're in a race with nobody, apart from a race with safety."

Nevertheless, listening to this, and knowing, as Burt Rutan said, that the cause of an explosion that killed three people at Scaled last year has still not been determined, I wondered whether plans for flight testing this summer are too optimistic. We'll see.

But there is no question that suborbital tourism is on the horizon and it's clear that, with Branson's style of marketing, there will soon be a lot of talk around office watercolors about the ultimate vacation into the final frontier.

Mark Mayfield is editor-in-chief of LAUNCH Magazine. Mark has previously served in the role of editor-in-chief of magazines House Beautiful, Traditional Home, Southern Accents, Arts & Antiques and InCircle Entree and prior to the magazine industry, Mark was an original founding staff member of USA Today, where he spent 10 years as an editor and writer. You may reach him by email at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . We strongly encourage you to engage our guest editorialists in commentary, as their contributions are what makes your hobby move forward. If you would like to comment publicly, post your response below.

01-31-2008 03:55 AM  #1
agrippo Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 71	Re: A day with Virgin Galactic Great write up Mark. Thanks for the insight, I'm looking forward to reading the full article when it's published. Have a Great Day!!! Andrew Grippo

02-04-2008 03:03 AM  #2
SpaceCowboy Rocket Scientist   Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 20	Re: A day with Virgin Galactic Hi, It's a thrill ride a best! You will not have great public interest because it does not involve much of the general public, and your really not going into space, just to the edge of it. The standard is if you can't go out and stay out, or you can't go around and around, and come back down safely, then your not in space, your just going really high in the sky! It has very little application to space development and access for the general public, which by the way the general public has to foot the bill for developing the infrastructure of facilities they will not be able to use, just a bunch of rich snobbooos! Ok, you got more chance of going with Virgin then you do with NASA! And that does bring up the question, why do we fund NASA, why don't we give that money to Branson, Bigelow, Beso, Musk, etc. At least then the general public might get a chance.....Ok, I might have a chance to merry Christy Brinkley too! Heck I am running for president and I will make a campaign promise to open up space to the public, especially if taxpayer dollars are used on it! Nice article though!

02-04-2008 03:11 AM  #3
SpaceCowboy Rocket Scientist   Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 20	Re: A day with Virgin Galactic Whoops, I forgot to mention John Carmack (Armadillo Aerospace)! Give him ALOT of taxpayer dollars to develop space stuff, he's a cool guy! We could go to DEMOS an blast some aliens!

02-04-2008 07:00 AM  #4
denverdoc Rana sapiens   Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 1732	Re: A day with Virgin Galactic Space cowboy, Don't take this the wrong way--it's not meant to be personal, buy the flip side of the question is why should US taxpayers pay for tourism in space, so you can take snapshots, or write poetry? Maybe a story to tell the grandkids about. Which is what it sounds like you're advocating. I don't see that as part of the agendae/mission of NASA. They do space science, which whether you agree or not as a worthwhile use of tax monies, tends to be an expensive business. They get about 4 billion a year. Last budget breakdown I saw, has 100 times that amount going to military spending. I don't see a huge personal return on that, nor do say couples w/o children having to spend money on schools. My point is we can all pick our favorite peeve. Complex science is expensive, whether particle physics, medical research, or astrophysics, and most of it offers no immediate return, hence little incentive for industry to invest in. The one recent exception I can think of was the dev't of Viagra. That went from research finding to product to Nobel Prize in record time. Now if there is a market for space tourism, private capital will be there. That a lot of the work has been done already by NASA and its contractors over the years, is obvious. So in a very real sense, you have subsidized the coming commercial/private expansion into LEO. Plus you got the images from Hubble, the interplanetary shots, and a bunch of info about our own home, the rigors of extended weightlessness, to name but a few of the products of that in the "bargain." see here for a recnt budget:http://www.nasa.gov/about/budget/FY_2007/index.html

02-04-2008 09:06 AM  #5
SpaceCowboy Rocket Scientist   Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 20	Re: A day with Virgin Galactic Hi, Nope I won't take it the wrong way. I agree with you on alot of your statements, but NASA can do alot more, it is poorly directed. They get about 18 billion a year (1 percent of the US budget). If they had better direction and focus we (civilians would be in LEO and on the moon, and NASA would be landing on mars to pave the way for civilians to go) NASA is a welfare jobs program right now, just going around in circles wasting money, and unless they get moving seriously the budget should be completely cut and given to the private sector so they can get the job done. Although, I like the shuttle but it is just way to expensive the way they milk the money out of it! Let Branson, Besos, Alan, Bigelow, run NASA, we would be on Pluto! Space is only expensive because of poor management and greed, and NOW the profit commercial thing is creeping in an inflating the prices. They need to directly involve the general public if they want support and interest. You know how much more pretty pictures we could have if we had a manned space telescope! NASA needs to open up to public involvement, not run them off. We do need all the different kinds of space: Government Space (NASA), Military Space (very limited though no blowing crap up in space that is just stupid), Commercial Space, and Civilian Space. They promised me hover cars in the 50's, where the heck are they at! I want a 100 mpg car too! I guess I am getting to old, I don't buy their BS anymore! Please don't buy into the statements that space is difficult, dangerous, expensive, etc. those are just tactics used by people who do not want to go into space but are trying to make a high hog living of using space to get more money and limit access, with space were not talking rocket science anymore. It is time to open up space and GO or give us the money and let us GO, but let's GO! Ok, I guess I have whined enough! I do like Branson, Besos, Carmack, Bigelow, Allen, Musk, etc. And, I do like the science part of space manned and unmanned, I am just dissapointed with NASA's performance, if they were in the private sector they would be as the Trumpster says: "YOUR FIRED!"

02-04-2008 09:50 AM  #6
denverdoc Rana sapiens   Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 1732	Re: A day with Virgin Galactic Well it sounds like we're almost in total agreement. I think we need a bold new vision. But the way things are in big US corporations, it may be that the director would make 50 times the gov't salary, and another 20 million severance package to fire his incompetent ass if he proved no better.

02-17-2008 02:28 PM  #7
swampcat New Member   Joined: Jul 2007 Posts: 7	Re: A day with Virgin Galactic Quote: Hi, It's a thrill ride a best! You will not have great public interest because it does not involve much of the general public, and your really not going into space, just to the edge of it. The standard is if you can't go out and stay out, or you can't go around and around, and come back down safely, then your not in space, your just going really high in the sky! It has very little application to space development and access for the general public, which by the way the general public has to foot the bill for developing the infrastructure of facilities they will not be able to use, just a bunch of rich snobbooos! Ok, you got more chance of going with Virgin then you do with NASA! And that does bring up the question, why do we fund NASA, why don't we give that money to Branson, Bigelow, Beso, Musk, etc. At least then the general public might get a chance.....Ok, I might have a chance to merry Christy Brinkley too! Heck I am running for president and I will make a campaign promise to open up space to the public, especially if taxpayer dollars are used on it! Nice article though! There is plenty of truth in what you say, but on some things, IMHO, you're dead wrong. SpaceShip Two, if successful, will go into space. The altitude they intend to reach could result in orbit if they could gain enough velocity. They won't do that, but to say they won't be in space is misinformation. As far as the general public is concerned, you are right that this will not affect them in the short term. However, the idea is to get rich people to spend money on suborbital flights in order to provide capital for future orbital efforts. It's also likely that the cost of suborbital flights will come down, allowing the less wealthy to afford it. Obviously, there's no guarantee that this scenario will play itself out that way, but being negative about it seems counterproductive for someone wanting see more human spaceflight. And, yes, it is a thrill ride, but what's wrong with that?