Virgin Galactic Unity 22 Launch

That crazy sum of a bitch really did it

This “billionaires In low orbit competition” has already put US astronauts on the space station. It’s a bit obnoxious now, but I’m sure it’s going to yield benefit in the long run.

The flight suits have thumb loops so limited chance of a reveal during a mission. And it also looks like Sir Richard has a fair few options (Bulova, Torgoen, Breitling)... I might need to study more of the necker island pictures...….
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I guess the logic is this is more an airliner than a rocket situation, so a flyable cabin is the key survival factor. Once that is lost unless very highly trained (and even then lucky) the odds would not be great. Loss of pressure would be another consideration although it is a short duration flight and gravity will always win quickly.
I found the following / would be interesting to know all the safety features and training + how the chutes are supposed to be used. I would risk it if anyone has a spare $250k,,,,
Spaceship 1 did reach the Karman line (100km) weight / safety has maybe pulled that back to 85km with Spaceship 2?


•WhiteKnightTwo engine reliability. Highly reliable and rigorously tested jet engines made by Pratt and Whitney Canada power the first 45,000 feet of the journey to space.

•Two pilots per vehicle. Two pilots will fly in each WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. Having a second pilot in the vehicles spreads the workload and provides critical redundancies.

•Design of RocketMotorTwo. RocketMotorTwo is a simple and robust, human-rated spaceflight rocket motor with no turbo-pumps or complicated machinery. This rocket offers simple shut-off control at any point in the trajectory, unlike a traditional solid rocket motor.

•Feathering system. Our unique wing feathering technology provides self-correcting capability that requires limited pilot input for SpaceShipTwo to align properly for re-entry.

•Astronaut preparation. Each of our future astronauts will go through a customized medical screening and flight preparation process, including training for use of communication systems, flight protocols, emergency procedures and G-force training. In addition, initial customer questionnaires and health tracking have been completed and are maintained in a comprehensive and secure medical database.

•Full mission abort capability. Due to our air-launch configuration and flight profile, mission abort capability exists at all points along the flight path and consists of aborts that mimic the normal mission profile. For example, if pre-launch release criteria are not met, the SpaceShipTwo is designed to remain attached to the carrier aircraft and make a smooth, mated landing. In the event of an abort in a short-burn duration, the spaceship pilot may choose to fly a parabolic, gliding recovery. For longer duration burns, pilots will continue to climb to configure a feathered re-entry and establish a gliding recovery at nominal altitudes.

There might be some clues here as well. My maths might be out but is looks like a zero survival probability failure would be expected every 6666 missions or so (based on a 90 minute suborbital flight).

Blue Origin have waded in on this (Tweet) ... but they don’t mention the relative cost. Also would be interesting to look at the impact of fuel production / cost of manufacture. Of course Ozone is important stuff if launches become very regular.
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