Richard Branson finally got his journey to space on Sunday.
It’s been a long time waiting for Branson, a directorless British billionaire, 70 years old who led the virgin corporate galaxy.
In 2004, he founded Virgin Galactic to provide adventurous tourists by riding a rocket-powered plane to the edge of the room and returned.
At that time, he thought commercial services would begin in two to three years.
Instead, almost 17 years have passed.
Virgin Galactic said it still has three more test flights to do, including those on Sundays, before they can be ready to pay for passengers.
For this flight, Branson will become a member of the crew.
The job is to evaluate the cabin experience for future customers.
When is the flight, and how can I watch it? Flights are scheduled to take off Sunday morning from Spaceport America in New Mexico, about 180 miles south of Albuquerque.
Virgin will broadcast flight coverage starting at 9am.
East Time, with Stephen Colbert Hosting Livestream.
Singer Khalid is scheduled to do a new song after the land of the crew, and Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, suggested he might appear.
What is Virgin Galactic spacecraft, and what will he do? Rocket aircraft, the type called spaceshiptwo, is about the size of the executive jet.
Apart from two pilots, there will be four people in the cabin.
This special spaceshiptwo is named VSS unity.
To get out of the ground, the union was brought by a larger aircraft to a height of around 50,000 feet.
There, unity will be released, and the rocket aircraft motorbike will burn.
Acceleration will make people on the ship feel the power of up to 3.5 times their normal weight on the way to a height of more than 50 miles.
At the top of the arc, those on the boat will be able to get out of their chairs and experience about four minutes without weight.
Of course, they won’t really get away from gravity.
Fifty miles and above, the gravitational pull under the earth is basically as strong as on the ground; Instead, passengers will fall at the same speed as the plane around them.
Two tail booms behind the spaceship rotating to the “hairy” configuration that creates more obstacles and stability, allowing the aircraft to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere softer.
This configuration makes spaceshiptwo more like a shuttlecock badminton, which always falls with a pointed side oriented down, than the plane.
However, the forces felt by passengers on the way down will be greater than when they rise, reaching six times the gravitational style.
After the plane returns to the atmosphere, the tail boom will turn back, and the plane will slide into the landing.
All flights may take less than two hours.
Who is the crew member on this plane? The pilot is David Mackay and Michael Masucci.
Besides Branson, three Galactic Virgin employees will evaluate how the experience will be for customers who pay in the future.
They beth moses, head of astronaut instructors; Colin Bennett, the main operating engineer; And sirisha bandla, vice president of government affairs and research operations.
Bandla will also conduct science experiments provided by the University of Florida.