GOLDEN,
Colo. -- After witnessing the initial surge of public interest in suborbital
space tourism that followed the successful flight of the X Prize-winning
SpaceShipOne three years ago, officials at Virgin Galactic thought the pace of
paid reservations might slow down in 2007 particularly since SpaceShipTwo is
not slated to launch before late 2009 at the earliest.
They
needn't have worried.
"In the
last quarter, we have doubled the number of bookings taken on the same time last
year," said Carolyn Wincer, head of Astronaut Sales for Virgin Galactic. Wincer
told SPACE.com the company had thought that interest might drop for a
while until the new spaceship was rolled out.
"However,
this is not the case at all," she said. "As word gets around that you can make
a reservation now, people are keen to secure a place. Even better, uptake
is in line with our 'best case scenario' from our original business plan ...
meaning that the price point and estimates of interest that we projected
ourselves, and based on market research, are so far proving to be correct."
So in the
big picture, Wincer says the strong public interest is "good news for all space
enthusiasts and for the industry as a whole!"
Initially,
Virgin Galactic space flights will operate from the Mojave Spaceport in Mojave,
California home of Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, the company that built
SpaceShipOne and where SpaceShipTwo is now coming together.
The
Spaceship Company, a joint venture announced in July 2005 between Sir Richard
Branson's Virgin Group and Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, has contracted
Scaled Composites to design and build SpaceShipTwo and the carrier mothership
WhiteKnight Two.
SpaceShipTwo
is being designed to accommodate six
passengers. It is scheduled to be unveiled before the end of 2007 and will
be named Virgin SpaceShip (VSS) Enterprise.
Virgin
Galactic will own and operate at least five of the new
spaceships and two motherships. The spaceline operator has established a
set payment of $200,000 per seat, with a minimum refundable deposit of $20,000
to make a reservation.
Wincer said
200 customers from 30 different countries have already made deposits to confirm
their reservations.
Space
Sales Force
Fresh
statistics from Wincer show some interesting trends.
The country
that is home to the largest number of ticket buyers is the United States,
followed by the United Kingdom, Japan, Russia, Australia, Canada, New Zealand,
Spain, and Ireland. In terms of the proportion of Virgin Galactic customers per
capita, the top three countries are New Zealand, Ireland and Denmark.
Of the
customers who have signed up so far, 15 percent are female, Wincer's statistics
show. Ten percent of total customers booked through a travel agent, but 30
percent of the bookings have been received via Virgin Galactic "Accredited
Space Agents" an initiative launched in January of this year, she said.
Accredited Space Agents are registered travel agents who have been specially
selected and fully trained on all aspects of the Virgin Galactic offering.
As for
Accredited Space Agents (ASAs) around the world, the numbers are as follows:
- Australia
has nine travel agencies and about 30 travel consultants.
- New
Zealand has one national chain with 10 consultants.
- Japan has
one agency with five consultants.
- The
United States has 47 consultants from about 45 agencies, all of these are
members of Virtuoso, a leading leisure travel network.
- Canada
has six consultants from four agencies (who will be trained next week in
Vancouver and are all Virtuoso members).
- The
United Arab Emirates (UAE) has one agency with about 12 consultants.
- Then add
one agency and two to three consultants from each of the following who are
all being trained this week at the International Space University:
Austria, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, the United
Kingdom, Russia, Israel, and the Czech Republic.
"I mention
the number of consultants as they are the ones who actually become 'ASAs' after
they undergo our one day training program covering technology, customer
experience, g-forces, medical issues, sales, marketing and public relations,"
Wincer said. "By doing a quick tally, by the time we finish the training
in Vancouver, we should have around 100 ASA consultants worldwide from around
82 agencies in 17 countries."
Takeoff
to touchdown
What you
get for your $200,000 includes three days of
pre-flight preparation, bonding and training onsite at the spaceport.
The big day
arrives with departure of the White Knight Two that cradles SpaceShipTwo,
hauling the vehicle and passengers to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) in
altitude for release.
Space travelers will then be rocketed to around 360,000 feet (109,728 meters) in altitude, some 68 miles (109 kilometers) high, with "fee-floating" passengers experiencing 4 to 5 minutes of microgravity. Faces pressed against large windows, customers get an on-high view of more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) in any direction. As for the length of time for SpaceShipTwo to glide to a terra firma touchdown, that takes some 30 minutes. The suborbital journey ends with SpaceShipTwo gliding to a runway landing.
All-in-all,
the suborbital sojourn from takeoff to touchdown takes approximately 2.5
hours.
In the
United States, those who travel above an altitude of 50 miles (80 kilometers)
are designated as astronauts.
The
Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), the world air sports federation
based in Lausanne, Switzerland, defines spaceflight as over 62 miles (100
kilometers). Virgin Galactic passengers will receive Virgin Galactic astronaut
wings and may receive Federal Aviation Administration astronaut wings as well.
Spaceport
America
While
initial spaceline operations will take place at the Mojave Spaceport, Virgin
Galactic is to establish its headquarters and operate space flights from Spaceport
America, now under construction in New Mexico and billed as the world's
first "purpose built" commercial spaceport.
Momentum is
picking up in readying Spaceport America for operations but first the paperwork.
The New
Mexico Spaceport Authority anticipates official filing of its license
application later this year to the Federal Aviation Administration.
"We expect
to receive the Record of Decision on the Environmental Impact Statement and the
approval of the license application in early 2008, and we plan to break ground
shortly after that," said Rick Homans, Executive Director of the New Mexico
Spaceport Authority.
"Bottom
line...we remain on schedule to be operational by late 2009 or early 2010,"
Homans told SPACE.com.
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