Posts Tagged ‘Richard Branson’

Article courtesy of Las Cruces Sun-News

Courtesy of Sierra Nevada Corp.

By Diana M. Alba

LAS CRUCES – Spaceport America’s anchor tenant company, Virgin Galactic, announced recently it’s partnering with two other companies that have their sights set on orbital spaceflight.

The other companies, Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp. and the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., have submitted competing bids to NASA for a chance at flying U.S. astronauts to space after the shuttle program retires.

But don’t expect orbital flights to launch from Spaceport America any time soon.

For starters, Virgin Galactic’s proposed role seems limited at this point. The commercial spaceflight company has said it would market seats aboard orbital flights to its existing suborbital-flight customer base, as well as to the larger public, according to a company news release. Virgin Galactic may also have some involvement in vehicle testing for the companies’ development programs.

Also, potential launch locations for orbital vehicles are limited by infrastructure and regulation. That’s the case with Sierra Nevada Corp.’s proposal, said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of the company’s space systems division.

“It’s not possible for any of the companies’ orbital to fly out of New Mexico because of physics and logistics, so we all would be flying out of one of the coastal spaceports,” he said. “New Mexico doesn’t have a rocket port that can launch a vehicle of this size – we’re flying out of an Atlas V rocket.”

Continued Sirangelo: “And there still is a prohibition against doing this type of launch from an inland port.”

Both orbital companies would use expendable rockets to propel their spaceships upward. And the spaceships would return to Earth using conventional, runway landings.

That means Sierra Nevada Corp. could touch down its vehicle, called Dream Chaser, at Spaceport America, Sirangelo said.

“We could fly to Las Cruces as an entry point and land there, if we wanted to,” he said.

By comparison, Virgin Galactic launches its suborbital spaceship from a runway using a carrier plane, WhiteKnightTwo, and also lands on a runway.

Sirangelo acknowledged there’s nothing to restrict Dream Chaser’s landing to a spaceport. Because there will be no hazardous chemicals aboard, he said, “all we need is a normal, commercial runway to land, which is the same thing a 737 would use.”

Spaceport America executive director Rick Homans said the spaceport is communicating with Virgin Galactic “to understand better their relationship and role with these two proposals and also understanding the different technologies and companies they’re teaming with.” Spaceport America’s emphasis now, he said, is suborbital flights, though “we’re open to exploring ways to participate in this project.”

“All of this is relatively new, and I think everybody is sorting out the various relationships,” he said. “If there is a way to participate, we’d be eager to do so, but that requires some extensive discussions.”

Homans said that discussion would have to take place with the orbital spaceflight companies themselves.

Virgin Galactic, in a news release, said both companies’ vehicle designs could “revolutionize” orbital flight, the way its own vehicle, SpaceShipTwo, has “revolutionized suborbital spaceflight.”

Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic founder, said his company has focused on making suborbital space accessible to people.

“We know that many of those same people, including myself, would also love to take an orbital space trip in the future, so we are putting our weight behind new technologies that could deliver that safely,” while greatly reducing costs of manned, orbital flight, he said.

Other involvement

Sierra Nevada Corp. is the builder of the rocket motor Virgin Galactic is using in its suborbital system.

Virgin Galactic in a Dec. 16 announcement indicated the company may support Sierra Nevada Corp. and Orbital Sciences Corp. by using WhiteKnightTwo as a carrier plane during development.

“We would be doing our testing work, which means we’d take our vehicles up to a high altitude, drop it and learn how to fly it home, using the Virgin Galactic plane,” Sirangelo said. “And we’d likely being doing that work out of Spaceport America. It’s likely our testing program would be happening in both Mojave (Calif.) and New Mexico.”

Sirangelo said he couldn’t comment about whether Virgin Galactic is proposing to become an investor in his company, but he did say “the companies will likely explore other areas of mutual interest later.”

Representatives from Virgin Galactic and Orbital Sciences could not be reached for comment for this report.

Diana M. Alba can be reached at (575) 541-5443.

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Todd G. Dickson

A flyover by Virgin Galactic’s spaceliner and the presence of aerospace’s more ambitious space entrepreneurs are just a couple of the highlights of this year’s International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight next month.

Photo courtesy of Virgin Galactic

More than 400 aerospace leaders – company executives, government officials and researchers – are expected to attend this year’s conference to be held Wednesday, Oct. 20, and Thursday, Oct. 21, at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road.

Flanking the conference will be the free public forum from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19, at the Pan American Center on the New Mexico State University campus, and, after the conference, Virgin Galactic’s “mothership” Eve carrying the six-passenger rocket ship Enterprise is scheduled to fly over Spaceport America’s recently completed two-mile-long runway in the desert between Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences.

British billionaire Richard Branson, who is developing Virgin Galactic’s fleet to fly out of the New Mexico spaceport, described the flight as historic because it will be the first long-distance “capture-carry” flight of the spaceliner, making Oct. 22 a “momentous” day for commercial space.

“The new runway at Spaceport America will be finished, and the exterior fabric of our own facility at the spaceport will largely be complete,” Branson said. “It will be an honor to be present on that day, and I can safely say it will be one of the most exciting days in the history of Virgin.”

Based on the X PRIZE-winning system created by aviation genius Burt Rutan, Virgin’s double-hulled, jet-powered “mothership” will carry the Enterprise into the sky for a high-elevation, mid-air launch that will take its passengers to suborbital space.

Many of Virgin Galactic’s top executives will be at the conference, and Branson will deliver a taped message to school children at the public forum – but he isn’t the only one investing big money into privately funded commercial space development.

As in past years, the roster of panelists and speakers include many of the top players in the new industry of commercial space. The latest to agree to participate is Robert Bigelow, who has spent the last 10 years conducting research and development into a new generation of expandable space habitats. A Las Vegas, Nev., native, he made his fortune in real estate, banking and finance and is now gambling it on Bigelow Aerospace to create these expandable space habitats that can survive safely in orbit.

In 2006 and 2007, Bigelow launched its orbiting prototypes Genesis I and Genesis II with the goal to provide more room than the International Space Station at a fraction of the cost.

Other symposium participants include: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Neil Sheehan, whose latest book “A Fiery Peace in a Cold War” tells the story of the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile program; Jeff Greason, CEO of XCOR Aerospace; Debra Fracktor Lepore, president of DFL Space; Lee Rand, Sun Mountain Capital partner; George Nield, commercial space transportation associate administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration; Lori Garver, NASA deputy administrator; and Clay Mowry, Arianespace president. Many others in organizations supporting commercial space development will participate in the two days of the conference.

Pat Hynes, executive director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium at the NMSU campus, which organizes the symposium, said the start of the symposium will begin with reviewing the origins of space exploration, but then quickly go into in-depth discussions about issues and obstacles facing the new industry, such as skepticism about the ability of the private sector to reach orbital space and the difficulty in finding investors. The symposium will also explore opportunities the new commercial space vehicles have in microgravity manufacturing, research and education.

The symposium brings the leaders of the industry here at a time when many in the local business community are trying to find a way to have the activities at the spaceport translate into more jobs and opportunities, Hynes said. The symposium provides an opportunity for networking that can lead to local ventures, such as the Hatch solar plant.

The free public forum on Tuesday, Oct. 19, will be divided into three segments. The morning session will be primarily educational, but will give people an opportunity to hear from a real astronaut, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides, and one of Virgin Galactic’s customers. The lunch hour forum will include Whitesides, Hynes, another astronaut and students. The afternoon segment will include the mayors of Las Cruces, Hatch and T or C, as well as the mayor of Titusville, Fla., which grew with the NASA program.

Article courtesy of The Las Cruces Bulletin

By Todd G. Dickson

With construction under way on the 110,152-square-foot Terminal Hangar Facility at Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic’s new space liner took to the skies for the first time carrying its rocket spaceship. On Monday, March 22, Virgin Galactic announced that its commercial manned spaceship, VSS Enterprise, successfully completed its first “captive carry” test flight.

Virgin Galactic’s system for taking passengers to suborbital space will have the double-hulled carrier jet powered aircraft – called the mother ship or “Eve” – carry the rocket portion up to 52,000 feet, where it will be released. The six-passenger spacecraft will then ignite its hybrid rocket engine to bolt to an elevation of 65 miles within 60 seconds.

Monday’s flight simply had the mother ship carry the rocket payload, but flew to an elevation of 45,000 feet during a flight that lasted nearly three hours. The elevation and duration of the first “mated” flight illustrated the confidence that Virgin Galactic has in the aircraft, said New Mexico Spaceport Authority Executive Director Steve Landeene during a presentation Tuesday, March 22, to the High Tech Consortium of Southern New Mexico.

Both vehicles are being developed for English billionaire Richard Branson by Scaled Composites in Mojave, California. Founded by Burt Rutan, the company came up with a smaller version of the system to claim the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE in 2004 as the world’s first privately developed manned spacecraft to reach suborbital space. Branson bought the rights for the technology and is working with Scaled Composites to create a fleet of space liners for Virgin Galactic, which will take passengers to suborbital space for $250,000 a flight by 2011, should future testing go well.

Virgin Galactic will be the anchor tenant at Spaceport America, and the Terminal Hangar Facility is being built for its operations. Landeene said the foundation for the facility’s steel towers has been laid and the building is on track to be turned over to Virgin Galactic by early 2011.

Meanwhile, Landeene said work continues to progress rapidly on the 10,000 foot runway, which will primarily be used for the Virgin Galactic take-offs and landings. But the sturdy asphalt and concrete runway can handle any kind of aircraft and Landeene said he can foresee its use for specially modified 727s to take people on zero-gravity simulated flights.

Landeene also noted progress on other work at the $198 million spaceport in the desert between Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences, including the spaceport’s fuel storage facility, wastewater treatment system, water access and other utilities, such as electricity. Though the spaceport is tapping traditional electricity, Landeene said the goal is to generate all of the spaceport’s energy needs at the site through renewable energy technologies.

With 12 of the 14 major project contracts awarded, “we are about a year away from having a full spaceport ready for business,” he said. All of those contracts have gone to New Mexico companies, though Landeene acknowledged the criticism that many of the jobs have gone to Albuquerque- based companies. Never the less, Landeene said the work done to date has created more than 600 jobs in the area, which he said is buoying local businesses and government through the lean economy. He estimated that the spaceport activity has already brought New Mexico more than $18 million in revenue that it wouldn’t have had without the project. “The return on investment is really quite tremendous,” he said.

The spaceport will continue to host other customers, such as UP Aerospace, which has conducted a number of launches with its low-cost sounding rocket, including research and development tests for Lockheed Martin and MOOG FTS. Landeene said he expects to soon be making other announcements about significant private space companies coming to Spaceport America.

With NASA rethinking its mission, private companies providing affordable access to space will become more significant partners in the future, Landeene said. NASA recently announced it intends to spend $75 million on development of suborbital vehicles.

It also helped that the Legislature passed and Governor Bill Richardson signed into law informed consent legislation, which defines the passengers as participants who know they are taking a risk in these private space flights. Landeene said the law doesn’t eliminate liability to the companies for negligence or damage to other property, but it does make doing business in New Mexico more attractive in the area of private spaceflight.

State Senator Steve Fischmann agreed with Landeene that many northern lawmakers have a “jaundiced view” of the spaceport until they learn more about research-and-development potential that’s possible along with the space tourism.

Landeene admitted some won’t be able to get behind the spaceport until they’ve seen it work and produce more local activity. He said his office continues to investigate other opportunities for providing more “supply chain” business to the local area, as well as packaging tourist experiences. The spaceport’s construction, however, is the primary task of his office, he noted.