We don't usual cover stories like this, but hey, it makes a change from TVs and smartphones doesn't it. Plus what else could be more futuristic, more 'techy' than space travel.
Rich geek and bearded explorer Lord Richard Branson successfully dropped a 'passenger rocketplane' from a 'jet mothership' at 45,000 feet to make a 'glide landing.' How cool is that? Well let's let the man himself tell us,
“I watched the world's first manned commercial spaceship landing on the runway at Mojave Air and Space Port and it was a great moment.”
“Now, the sky is no longer the limit and we will begin the process of pushing beyond to the final frontier of space itself over the next year."
During commercial operations, a VSS (Virgin Space Ship) would fire up its rocket to zoom briefly out of the atmosphere and once the rocket has burned out the little ship will plunge back to Earth for a glide landing at Mojave, as successfully performed yesterday.
If you happen to have a few grand lying around, then Virgin Galactic tickets can be booked, well, as soon as you like. Branson’s people have been taking reservations for years already.
However the first proper test flight isn’t expected until next year and commercial operations are some distance beyond that.
So what now for the VSS then, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides?
“Our challenge going forward will be to complete our experimental program, obtain our FAA licence and safely bring the system into service.”
So there you have it. To infinite and beyond for £200,000
Source: TheRegister