FAST FORWARD
On July 11, in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, the VSS Unity was launched into space from its mother ship, known as White Knight Two or VMSEve. Eve is the name of billionaire entrepreneur and commercial space travel developer Richard Branson’s mother (hence, mother ship). From this double fuselage carrier plane, the VSS Unity rocket plane would be launched into space. The mother ship carried the rocket plane. They climbed together to an altitude just below 50,000 feet. The rocket plane was released and its engine ignited, sending the craft up a little over Mach 3 to approximately 300,000 feet above Earth.

The crew on board included Richard Branson, himself, along with three crew and two pilots. Branson labeled himself as a mission specialist, which he sure is. He has been working on developing commercial space travel for 17 years. He is one of the pioneers of public space travel. Jackie Salo, writing for the NY Post, reports, Branson had joined the flight to test the customer experience for future space tourists and was quoted as saying,“Initially, I thought testing the customer experience was a little bit of an excuse to get me on it. It wasn’t. It’s so great to get out there and test the customer experience. You get lists and lists of the little things, and it’s the little details that matter.”

Space travel has entered a new era! Already, at least 22 seats have been sold for future flight at $250,000 per ticket! Now, don’t succumb to that venal sin, Envy. Remember when flat screen TVs were only for the very rich, priced at $20,000? Thanks to competition, it did not take long for prices to plummet so the general public could easily access that “new” technology. You have to start somewhere, folks! When private companies compete to outdo each other for our business, think of the ramifications. You could fly up, let the Earth turn on its axis below and come down on the other side of the world in an hour and a half!! How great would that be?! When I think of the many slogs my brother, David, has made between here and India, I just hope he gets to travel there by space one day.

SUBORBITAL AND ORBITAL SPACE EXPLAINED
A lot of space news will be coming at you, dear readers, so I want you to know the difference between suborbital and orbital space travel. Physics teacher David Woods explains, “It sounds like suborbital flight is just lower down than orbital, not as deep into space, but that isn’t true at all. It’s about your trajectory, a path that your rocket or spaceship takes. For you to be in orbit, you have to be going around the planet continually, moving fast enough that you will keep circling it forever. On the other hand, if you blast off and make a huge arc, eventually falling back to hit the earth, you never made it into orbit. Your flight was suborbital. No matter how far off into space you go, if your path causes you to fall back down to earth, then it is a suborbital flight.

How does this relate to space tourism? Well, let’s say that your spaceflight takes you to an altitude of 100 km above the earth. If you wanted to make it into orbit, you would have to reach a speed of almost 8000 miles per second. But if you just want to reach 100 km and fall back down to Earth, you would only need to go at a speed of about 1000 miles per second. That takes far less energy and therefore, is much less expensive (and safer). This is how space tourism could become a reality.”

GIANT STEPS FOR MANKIND
Just like the experience of being at the early landings of the Space Shuttle, so these new flights of private spacecraft destined to carry ordinary people to extraordinary places, fills a world-weary soul. There will be setbacks, there will be tragedies like the Challenger and even my beloved Columbia. But the pioneering spirit of special human beings, of independent seekers, will never be extinguished.

We are going to the stars! We really are!

Vamos a ver.