PARIS -
Swedish authorities planning to host flights of the Virgin Galactic suborbital
space plane hope to lower the costs and regulatory barriers to the operation by
having it classed as a sounding rocket and given the tax advantages of hot-air
balloon flights, Swedish and Virgin Galactic officials said April 1.
London-based
Virgin Galactic, whose SpaceShipTwo craft and its WhiteKnightTwo mother ship are
nearing completion by Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., remains on
schedule to begin test flights this summer, Virgin Galactic President Will
Whitehorn said.
Addressing
a press briefing at Sweden's Esrange launch site, which is being prepared as
Virgin Galactic's second
launch site after Sierra County, N.M., Whitehorn said the Virgin Galactic
is sticking with its earlier estimates of being able to field its space launch
system for about $250 million. He said about $100 million has been spent so
far.
Some 250
prospective customers have made $35 million in flight deposits with Virgin
Galactic. The flight ticket is $200,000 per person for a two-hour
flight that will include perhaps five minutes of weightlessness as the ship
approaches the limits of the Earth's atmosphere at 100 kilometers in altitude.
Sven Grahn,
senior advisor to the Swedish Space Corp., which operates the Esrange launch
facility in the northern Swedish town of Kiruna, said Esrange's long history as
a site for launches of suborbital sounding rockets has established a regulatory
regime in Sweden to cover third-party liability that also could also apply to
include Virgin Galactic operations.
To reduce
the value-added tax that would be levied on applied to Virgin Galactic
operations, Grahn said Swedish Space Corp. is investigating whether the
space-tourism activity could be fitted into the same low-tax regime that covers
the operations of hot-air balloons.
Value-added
taxes in Sweden run as high as 25 percent.
Grahn said
that while space law in Europe remains the responsibility of individual
nations, aviation law authority is slowly migrating slowly to the European
Union. He said it remains unclear whether European or Swedish aviation
regulations will apply to space tourism from Swedish territory.
As he has
in the past, Whitehorn conceded that while the design and composite-materials
construction using composite materials of SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo have
captured most of the attention, many of the hurdles that the company needs to
overcome relate to the more prosaic issues of regulatory approval and insurance
coverage.
Space-tourism
industry officials have said that their obvious early market, high-net-worth
individuals, presents the risk that, in the event of an accident, passengers'
families would seek to overturn in court the liability waivers that customers
will sign. If such an action is viewed as likely, Virgin Galactic will have
difficulty securing insurance coverage.
After its
flight tests this summer, Virgin Galactic will need to be certified as
flight-worthy by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Only after
certification occurs will the company have a clear idea of when its first
flights will be. But Whitehorn said 2009 remains the target. For the Swedish
operation, flights could begin in 2012 or 2013, he said.
As is the
case in New Mexico, Virgin Galactic is not investing in the development of the
Swedish spaceport. In Sweden, Esrange already has a suitable airport and a
large hangar that can be used by Virgin Galactic. Swedish Space Corp. officials
hope to make the business case for space tourism based on from revenues
expected from paying customers pace-tourism passengers and accompanying
personnel.
The Swedish
flights would feature what Kiruna Mayor Kenneth Stalnacke referred to as
"surfing through the northern lights," the Aurora Borealis, during the
midsummer and mid-winter months.
Stephen
Attenborough, Virigin Galactic's commercial director, said the company's
earlier estimate that 80 percent of its prebooked passengers would pass a
physical exam now looks overly cautious.
Attenborough
said a sample group of 80 Virgin Galactic customers - including one 88-year-old
- have been put through the stresses of a centrifuge in Philadelphia to test
their ability to withstand the g-force loads expected during a Virgin
Galactic flight.
Only two
were disqualified, with three others asked to provide supplemental medical
information, Attenborough said. Based on this experience, Virgin Galactic now
assumes that 90 percent or more of those reserving flight slots will pass the
preflight medical exam.
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