• Insights

“The countdown to release… a moment of quiet… an overwhelming and enthralling howl matched with unimaginable acceleration to over 2,500 miles per hour in a matter of seconds. A sky transforming from blue to the deepest, darkest black… and then… silence… weightlessness… and, finally, a view you’ve seen many times before, but never with your own eyes in all its majesty… a perfect blue sphere, no boundaries, no borders… and just a tiny, fragile-looking ribbon of atmosphere.”

This sounds like a fantastic and vivid dream or a scene from a movie, but it is actually a description of the Virgin Galactic experience from our brochure. This vision has already captured the imaginations of the more than 430 people who have signed up for our first commercial space flights, which will take place within the next two years.

To put this into context: Since the first Soviet and American space missions took place 50 years ago, just over 500 people have reached space. Space travel has been limited to government agencies, which have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on developing the technologies that have enabled mankind’s first forays outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Virgin Galactic is pushing to make space travel possible for paying customers; in our first full year of operations, Virgin Galactic plans to carry more than 500 astronauts.

While the ticket prices are high, these are no luxury trips or exotic adventures—we are using our space tourism efforts to enhance our expertise in space travel. Parts of the space industry are being transferred to private companies as NASA’s space shuttle program shuts down. This change will affect launches of satellites, which are instrumental in our communications network and to data-gathering, on everything from changing weather patterns to crop yields. We should no longer rely on old, expensive, “dirty” technology to transport satellites into space. The industry must be made more sustainable.

So, we have been developing a greener solution
in Mojave, California—one that will have less impact
on the environment and will be more cost effective.
Our two-step launch process, which does not employ rockets until the aircraft reaches the stratosphere,
uses less energy than other systems that rely on rockets to lift off from the ground.

The carrier plane, WhiteKnightTwo, flies like an airplane, lifting the secondary space plane to a height of 50,000 feet. It was built using a lightweight all-carbon-composite design and is powered by
four Pratt and Whitney Canada PW308A engines; some of the most powerful, economic and efficient available. In time, as we learn more about how best to employ these technologies, we may be able to apply this knowledge in other areas of the space and airline industries.

In the second step of the launch, our rocket-powered space plane, SpaceShipTwo, detaches from the carrier plane at an altitude where the air is thinner and the space plane needs
less energy to reach suborbital space. The hybrid rocket motor is more efficient and flexible than previous models.
The fuel is a solid rubber compound, and the oxidizer
is nitrous oxide in liquid form. This combination powers an economical rocket engine that can be controlled
and shut down easily.

A sustainable future includes space travel and industry in space, so it is worth trying to develop these technologies to be energy-efficient. For our planet’s health, we must reach for the skies when developing green technologies for the space industry.

RICHARD BRANSON is the Founder of the Virgin Group.

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NASA, Richard Branson, Virgin, virgin galactic