Booking: SS2

SpaceShipTwo will have a cew of six passengers and two pilots and it has enough large windows for everyone to have a perfect view on Earth from space. Communication between the pilots and passengers goes through wireless headsets. The spaceship takes-off tethered beneath the mothership WhiteKnightTwo. The ascent to launch altitude takes more than an hour. Once released from the mothership on a height of 15km, the spacecraft will take sufficient distance before the pilot ignites the rocket engine. From this moment the spacecraft is pointed towards the edge of space, the acceleration starts and the passengers are thrown back into their seats. It takes only 12 seconds to reach the sound barrier, 20 seconds to Mach 2 and within a minute the spaceship is travelling at a speed of almost Mach 4. The noise, vibration and acceleration are almost the same like an astronaut going to orbit. In a few seconds the window view will change from blue to dark blue, indigo and suddenly ink black. At 80 seconds the pilot stops the engine and the spacecraft immediately enters zero gravity. The passengers have crossed the Karman Line and have become astronauts. They float around the cabin while staring at the view of the Earth and the fine blue line of the atmosphere. The spacecraft will spend 4 minutes in space before it begins to fall back down to Earth. Everybody take their positions again and the passengers will fold their seats flat, to cope with Mach 4 when returning to Earth. The way back will take 15 minutes and the spaceship will land on the same place from which it took off.

Join a Virgin Galactic spaceflight

You wil find yourself in a cabin with 5 other passengers. There are large windows for everyone. The flight feels like an exorbitantly rollercoaster ride or a very long bungee jump. It has it all, the exciting foreboding, the rush of adrenalin and the aftermath, only lifted to a higher stage. Because of the fact that the spacecraft is launched from an airplane, the spacecraft gets more initial speed and altitude then launching from the ground. The absolute highlight is during the highest point of the trip. While floating in the cabin, due to the zero gravity, at a height of 110 km, passengers will have a 4 to 5 minutes time to enjoy a spectacular view on the Earth. The thin blue line of the atmosphere is also clearly visible.

The first launch location is the futuristic spaceport America in New Mexico. There are also eight other locations planned in the United States and another 10 proposed, mostly around airports

Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 by Richard Branson. Richard partnered with Burt Rutan to built a flee of spaceships for commercial use. The first ships were SpaceShipOne and the White Knight. SpaceShipOne was the first privately funded and build spacecraft to reach space in 2004. It´s not in use anymore. SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo is the newest design of Rutan and is manufactured by Scaled Composites. Virgin and Scaled Composites started a joint venture together called The Spaceship Company. Now TSC is completely owned by Virgin Galactic and is aiming for a fleet of two White Knight Two motherships and five or more SpaceShipTwo spacecrafts for the suborbital flights. By the time that SpaceShipTwo will be fully and successfully operational, SpaceShipThree will come up for orbit flights.