Don't just dream about going to space any longer: you could make it happen just in just a few months.
Virgin Galactic just announced that they're on track to begin their very first commercial tours into space, starting in 2014. Tours. Into space. Let that sink in for a moment. Now hold on to that moment just a second longer because it's flying out of the window once we tell you ticket prices are at $250,000 a pop. That's after they were raised from $200,000, just this April—and no telling how much it could raise in the next few months. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo just completed its second successful rocket-powered flight yesterday, where it showed off its "wing-feathering" capabilities (peep the video above): "Once out of the atmosphere the entire tail structure of the spaceship can be rotated upwards to about 65 degrees," Virgin said of the feat on their website.
"The feathered configuration allows an automatic control of attitude with the fuselage parallel to the horizon. This creates very high drag as the spacecraft descends through the upper regions of the atmosphere. The feather configuration is also highly stable, effectively giving the pilot a hands-free re-entry capability, something that has not been possible on spacecraft before, without resorting to computer controlled fly-by-wire systems."
Virgin CEO Richard Branson said he'll be aboard the first flight next year, along with anyone else who could afford it. Which, unfortunately, includes Justin Bieber.
[viai09]
