4 March 2014
Despite Richard Branson’s regular insistence that the first six-passenger flight from Virgin Galactic is imminent – he has confidently announced it for more or less every year from 2007 – the service has completed only three test flights with a peak altitude of little more than 13 miles.
To achieve the necessary FAA licence, the craft will need several tests at its full speed and 62-mile height.
Journalist and author Tom Bower, who has just published a biography of Branson, says he believes SpaceShipTwo’s engine will need to be redesigned before it can achieve Branson’s stated aims, making a full-blown space flight by autumn extremely unlikely.
“The rocket still hasn’t flown at the required speed and to the required height,” Bower said. “The point about his rocket is it’s very primitive. He’s burning rubber with nitrous oxide, and it’s never been done before for that size of rocket.
“For the last ten years he’d been trying to make it work for the extended rocket and it just isn’t working. Where’s the evidence he can make it work in the next six months?”
<a href=’http://www.virgingalactic.com/’ target=’_blank’>www.virgingalactic.com</a>
