Space Terminal Approved by FAA
Virgin Galactic's port for planet-hopping tourists has been approved by the FAA.
by Chris Iaquinta
December 18, 2008 - Ready to boldly go where no man has gone before? Well too bad because you won't be the first, but you could be one of the first thousand if you sign up early enough. That's right friends, civilian space travel is just as little as two years away from being commercially ready, and the building of the world's first tourist space flight center has just been approved. Named Spacesport America, the site was just recently given the go-ahead by the Federal Aviation Administration to commence construction on the future of consumer space travel.
The port will be based in southeastern New Mexico and for all we know it's just a giant conspiracy to give the government a reason to build something on top of the underground Area 51 compound. Friggin' aliens. The airline (or is that spaceline?) behind the endeavor is Virgin Galactic, a branch of the Virgin Airlines brand, owned by the space-obsessed and interstellarly wealthy Richard Branson.
Two crafts will be put to use initially, based off SpaceShipOne, the spaceship made famous by becoming the first reusable craft capable of suborbital flight. The commercial edition, cleverly named SpaceShipTwo (the man's a genius), features an improved design capable of transporting paying customers. Each of the two crafts has a special purpose, with the one acting as a carrier to lift the other to approx a height of 60,000 feet, where it will then release the second craft, which will then continue upward to about 70 miles above the earth.
However, don't think your booking a family vacation to Jupiter just yet. SpaceShipTwo is designed to venture past most of Earth's atmosphere, but will still stop short before reaching true orbit. Currently, plans are to take passengers approx. 100km into the sky, and by comparison, the International Space Station sits approx 350km from earth. You don't just sit down and buckle up either. A specific amount of training is required for each passenger, though admittedly the amount of training needed is far less than what is mandatory for those partaking in Russian-based space tourism. U.S.A! U.S.A!
So when will the Johnson family and little Billy get a chance to climb aboard? "We are on track to begin construction in the first quarter of 2009, and have our facility completed as quickly as possible," stated spaceport director Steven Landeene. "If everything goes as planned, most of the facilities should be open for business in 2010."
We're already saving up for the first flight to Mars. We can't wait to meet that chick with three boobs. Wanna join us? Learn more on how you can at the Virgin Galactic website.
http://www.virgingalactic.com/
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Subject: commerical space travel 2 years away 
Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:18 am
