Richard Branson flies earlier than Jeff Bezos, 82-year-old passenger

On July 11, 2021, Richard Branson will participate in the next trip subtropical The Spaceship Too It will be led by Dave McKay (3 .).^e Space Flight) and Michael Masusi (2^e space flights). British billionaire will be accompanied in the cabin by Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennett and Pete Musa (2^e space flights). If all goes as planned, Richard Branson will leave Earth nine days early Jeff Bezos, PresidentAmazon And from Blue Origin that makes the other semi-orbital craft, the New Shepherd! …and history will remember that Virgin Galactic became the first company to start a commercial tour service for a sub-orbital flight on the frontiers of space.

On the Blue Origin side, we keep the flight date set several weeks ago on July 20, which corresponds to the anniversary of First steps on the moon. But we won the funniest crew race. After allocating a seat after a auction sale Who raised $28 million, Jeff Bezos just announced that the fourth passenger on his flight will be 82-year-old Wally Funk. This American, who has a great professional background, has always dreamed of becoming an astronaut.

The biggest person to fly in space!

On July 20, Wally Funk will become the oldest person to fly in space, after the Senator John Glenn who, at the age of 77, has flown on the shuttle Discovery In October 1998. The similarity ends there. The two trips can’t be compared, John Glenn made a multi-day trip 300 kilometers or less from Earth while Wally Funk’s trip should take him to more or less a hundred kilometers for a few minutes.

In the 1960s, Wally Funk was the youngest graduate of the program. woman in space, a privately funded project that tested female pilots for astronaut fitness. Then I joined the project Mercury 13 That aims to select able pilots to join NASA. Unfortunately, none of the 13 American women who passed this test passed this test detect Physiological and psychological that the astronauts chosen by NASA for the Mercury project will not fly in space. Except for Wally Funk!

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin: Ego battle between billionaires dreaming of space

Article by Remy Decor Posted on 09/06/2021

Will Richard Branson burn literature with Jeff Bezos? This is what appears to be brewing on the side of Virgin Galactic that would have speeded up its suborbital and carrier aircraft to be ready to fly on July 4, two weeks before the New Shepard of Blue Origin flight.

Just a few hours afterBlue Origin adSpecifically that Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark will be aboard the New Shepard suborbital spacecraft during its first manned flight on July 20, 2021, we learned that Virgin Galactic will prepare a suborbital flight for SpaceShipTwo, and that it will take place in July. 4, the national day of the United States. On board: Billionaire Richard Branson who founded Virgin Galactic in 2004. Although he asserts parabolic arc By a source wishing to remain anonymous, this announcement must be taken on condition.

This Virgin Galactic suborbital flight will take place about two weeks before J’s escape into short spaceF Bezos accompanied by his brother The winner of the auction is the third place prize. The name of the winner will be known on Saturday 12 June at the end of the auction. This will be the first crewed flight from New Shepard, who flew 15 times without anyone on board.

Virgin Galactic flight is FAA licensed

However, before we can get Branson on board, Virgo Galaxy You must obtain a commercial reusable spacecraft operator’s license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US agency that regulates private launches. This license will allow Virgin Galactic to pilot the billionaire as the first participant in a space flight, which the current license does not allow. Virgin Galactic expects to receive this precious sesame in early July. Branson’s flight also depends on the readiness of VSS Unity and its carrier aircraft last flight May 22nd date. However, the preparation time for the two vehicles would only be 44 days if the theft occurred on July 4th. The delay can be compared to the 72 days needed between the first and second flights of SpaceShipTwo in December 2018 and February 2019.

What limits in space can we resort to!?

Finally, if Branson had traveled before Bezos, there would likely be some debate over whether he actually made it to space. In fact, there are at least three boundaries of space, two of which are arbitrarily fixed. One at an altitude of 80 kilometers, has been recognized by NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, NOAA, and the United States air succumb to. Crossing these limits allows for the famous “wings”, an American badge awarded to astronauts. The second was recognized by the International Federation of Aviation, which installed it at an altitude of 100 kilometers. This limit is also called Karman linefrom the name physical hongrois Theodor von Karmann.

However, it seems that Virgin Galactic is satisfied with 80 km and cannot reach an altitude of 100 km while the New Shepard of Blue Origin has exceeded it several times!