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Virgin Galactic pp 125–154Cite as

Pilot-Astronauts, Passengers, and Personnel

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Part of the book series: Springer Praxis Books ((SPACEE))

Abstract

Since SpaceShipOne’s flight, there have been many signs that commercial passenger spaceflight was becoming a reality, one of which was the April 2011 job announcement from Virgin Galactic seeking pilot-astronauts. The unique opportunity (see sidebar) initially involved working as part of the WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo spaceflight system test and development team in Mojave, California, before taking the experience gained from that program to Virgin Galactic’s commercial operations at Spaceport America, in New Mexico.

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Notes

  1. 1.

     The reason is SpaceShipTwo’s hybrid rubber–nitrous oxide engine performs poorly. Very poorly. So bad that the vibration in the version they used for the first three test flights could have torn SpaceShipTwo apart if it had been fired for full duration. Initially, Virgin Galactic planned to fix it by modifying SpaceShipTwo with additional helium tanks that would dampen the vibration. But the additional weight would have affected engine performance, which would have led to lower altitudes, so it wasn’t surprising in May 2014, after months of speculation, that Virgin Galactic announced it would be switching to a new plastic fuel. Instead of the hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), SpaceShipTwo will burn a polyamide-based fuel, which the company describes as a “benign thermoplastic”. There was no single issue that caused the switch: Virgin Galactic simply saw better performance on a few different criteria, which translated into an increased apogee.

  2. 2.

     SwRI made full deposits for two researchers to fly on SpaceShipTwo, with the intent to make similar arrangements for an additional six seats for a total value of US$1.6 million.

  3. 3.

     The FAA wings were suggested by Michelle S. Murray, an aerospace engineer in the aviation agency’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which regulates businesses that are off the planet [18].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Astronaut Instructor, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway

    Erik Seedhouse

Authors
  1. Erik Seedhouse
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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Seedhouse, E. (2015). Pilot-Astronauts, Passengers, and Personnel. In: Virgin Galactic. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09262-1_7

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