Unless you’re an astronaut and wish to venture into space, there’s one remaining requirement: you need to be rich. Gazing at the Earth from the International Space Station is quite a costly endeavor, and several companies are offering these services. One such company is Virgin Galactic. Although Virgin Galactic hasn’t achieved these goals yet, they have reasons to celebrate their achievements in the past six months. Here are the details:
Alan Stern Takes a Space Flight with Virgin Galactic, Following the Pluto Mission! Throughout this year, we’ve witnessed Virgin Galactic’s accumulation of suborbital spaceflights. Richard Branson founded this company in 2004 with the aim of democratizing the spaceflight experience and making some money along the way.
On Thursday, the company successfully conducted its most recent mission. SpaceShipTwo rocketed to an altitude of 87.2 kilometers, carrying six individuals, including three company employees and three passengers, after dropping from a jet-powered carrier aircraft over New Mexico. After a one-minute burn of the hybrid rocket motor, SpaceShipTwo reached the zenith of its journey before returning to Earth, landing on a runway at Spaceport America near White Sands Missile Range.
Among the passengers on this journey was Alan Stern, a well-known figure in the space community. Alan Stern is a planetary scientist recognized for completing the first robotic reconnaissance of Pluto and leading NASA’s New Horizons mission. He also provides consultation on entrepreneurship and the space industry.
Stern’s career includes a role as a NASA Associate Administrator in charge of all of the space agency’s science programs, serving at the agency’s headquarters between 2007 and 2008. Currently, he serves as Vice President at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
For Stern, this space journey marked a significant opportunity. He was able to crown years of research conducted on Earth with a journey into space. Stern applied to NASA’s professional astronaut corps six times but faced some interruptions. The Southwest Research Institute covered the cost of Stern’s flight on Thursday.
In a blog post, Stern mentioned, “To fly a space mission as nothing more than a civilian trainee is unusual, even perhaps unique. Yet, it’s evidence of the increasing normalization of spaceflight.
