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The Virgin Galactic company, belonging to the emporium of British billionaire Sir Richard Branson , has already achieved a historic milestone : achieving that one of its aircraft arrived in space (as a test) in 2018. The company thus became a pioneer in the field of aircraft. Space tourism, since the feat did not stop there, but, a few months later, it managed to get a passenger to accompany two crew members on their journey beyond the Earth's atmosphere.

He did it aboard the supersonic aircraft VSS Unity of Virgin Galactic, one of the subsidiaries of the Branson multinational, which achieved a Mach 3.04 ( measure of the speed of sound ) thanks to the propulsion of a hybrid rocket engine, which boasts the world record for its capability, and it propelled the spacecraft at Mach 3.04 to 295,007 feet.

The year of space tourism

However, Virgin Galactic wants to go further by launching commercial flights to go into space in a way that is not as extraordinary as before. In fact, Branson has already advanced that 2020 could be the year of space tourism. The global crisis caused by the coronavirus has not paralyzed its plans, as it has happened with the longest flight in the world, whose launch has been canceled due to the effects of Covid-19 in the world of travel. Quite the opposite. The English magnate has already finalized agreements with no less than NASA to carry out these commercial flights with passengers as soon as possible.

Virgin and NASA team up to fly at high speed.

Its objective is to combine knowledge to develop new technologies to launch supersonic flights together. In this way, the options of "the United States to produce technically feasible high-Mach vehicles for civil uses" would multiply , as Virgin Galactic points out in a statement.

NASA would thus join The Spaceship Company , another of the subsidiaries of the Branson emporium in charge of the manufacture of this type of supersonic devices. Its managers believe that they have the most advanced design, engineering and production technologies, as well as thousands of hours of testing in flights of this type to lead "the development of new aerospace applications."

Environmental awareness

Together with NASA, it would be possible to have airplanes that would pay "special attention to the exclusive experience of the customer and environmental responsibility, for which all economic and technological means available would be used ." Not surprisingly, the goal is to reach vehicles that can go at a speed of Mach 3 and Mach 5, above 2,300 miles per hour (3,700 km / hour).

The Spaceport America airport designed by Norman Foster.

Branson has long dreamed of these trips, which would depart from New Mexico's first purpose-built luxury private airport. Designed by Norman Foster , it is called Spaceport America . Flights from there would cost about $ 250,000 (about 210,000 euros) a ticket, a figure cheaper than if you had to send these aircraft into space via rocket . As the first passenger of this type of flight did on that first Virgin Galactic flight. And there are already more than 600 interested in occupying the seat ...

It was Beth Moses, an astronaut structure by profession, the first person to fly into space in a commercial spacecraft as a passenger, becoming the 571th to do so. If Virgin and NASA's plans go well this year, they could begin to come true.

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