Virgin Galactic goes into space for $400,000

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At some point someone bought the first car, the first iron and the first iPhone. On Thursday at 5 p.m. there will also be someone who will buy a ticket into space for the first time. Virgin Galactic operates first commercial flight from New Mexico airport. The company was founded in 2004 by the eccentric multi-entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson – he was knighted in 1999 by the then Queen Elizabeth II.

There were plenty of test flights, now for the first time paying customers are on board the “VSS Unity” and in space. Ironically, Italians are among the first paying customers. Their airlines may go bankrupt regularly and the state is considered to be rather cash-strapped anyway, but it was enough for the passage of members of the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council.

In 2021 there was a license for space flights

Although has Virgin Galactic have to fight hard to get a space flight license in 2021. But there is no such thing as absolute security in such adventures. That’s why there was criticism of the timing of the first flight, after all, five passengers died on the way to the wreck of the “Titanic” after the accident involving the “Titan” submersible. Scientists point out that the technology has not yet been tested very often and is new territory.

This applied to the submersible for the carbon fiber casing and to the “VSS Unity” for the hybrid approach of flight and space technology. On the other hand, the US aviation authority FAA is considered extremely meticulous – and gave the green light. Accordingly, the head of Virgin Galactic, Michael Colglazier, speaks of a “new era of repeatable and reliable access to space”.

In fact, Virgin Galactic does some things differently than, for example, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Among other things, they also transport tourists into space, but rely on conventional rocket launches. Branson’s idea was always a mixture of aerospace and aerospace – also because it’s cheaper. His “VSS Unity” does not jet from Earth into space, but is brought to an altitude of 15 kilometers by a carrier aircraft and then released. Only now does the “VSS Unity” ignite its own rocket motors to reach an altitude of 88 kilometers. In itself, the procedure is tried and tested, but there is one exception during landing: extending the spacecraft’s wings to control the return. So far, parachutes have been used for the braking manoeuvre. The Virgin process carries risks, experts say. Small mistakes by the pilots could lead to great misfortune. This is exactly what happened during a test flight in 2014, only the pilot survived with serious injuries. But no system is immune to human error. The new “VSS Unity” has passed all tests so far.

Start of a series of commercial space flights

The first flight is just the beginning of a true series of commercial space flights: From August, the “VSS Unity” will take tourists into space every month. And the successor spaceship “Delta” is already well advanced. From 2026 it will fly weekly and twice as long as the previous model. The first test flights are planned for 2025. The “Delta” will cost around 60 million euros and will be able to take off and land up to 500 times. Then billionaire Richard Branson hears the tills ring. With Delta, a flight would cost $520,000 and generate $2.7 million in revenue.

All that is needed is enough demand: Virgin Galactic says it has been selling tickets for the flights for ten years. 800 are said to be so far. As with a cruise, there was an early bird discount: a ticket cost 200,000 dollars at the time, today it is 450,000 euros. The analysts on the stock exchange see potential in the low double-digit billion range, but also say that it is still very early for a precise statement.

Because first of all, the competition is not made of cardboard: With Elon Musk and Jef Bezos, other billionaires are offering space tickets. When Jeff Bezos and his company Blue Origin auctioned a seat in their space capsule for the first time, 7,000 people raised their hands. And when he also took William Shatner aka Star Trek’s Captain Kirk into space in July 2021, he was sure to attract worldwide attention.

criticism from environmentalists

But also the criticism of environmentalists. One can question the social acceptance of space tourism flights, because they are poison for the climate. Those who emit large amounts of greenhouse gases not for research purposes but for pleasure have to justify themselves. Eloise Marais, of University College London’s Atmospheric Composition and Air Pollution Research Project, put it aptly: “We don’t currently have any regulations on missile emissions. Now is the time to act — while the billionaires are still buying their tickets.”

Bezos likes to point out that his rocket “New Shepard” does not emit carbon dioxide at all, but hydrogen and oxygen. Into space with water vapor – well, it is true that the new type of liquid fuel is more environmentally friendly than conventional kerosene rocket propulsion systems. But the production of the hydrogen needed for this in large quantities costs a lot of energy – and correspondingly releases large amounts of CO2. The discussion is not least known from eFuels in cars.

The fact that the construction of such a rocket including the launch device leaves a CO2 footprint should also not be forgotten. How big it is, well, none of the operators wanted to calculate that exactly. In Germany, every automotive supplier will soon have to submit a sustainability report detailing how much CO2 their products cost down to the screw. This is a proportionality that not everyone understands.

Rocket fuel damages the ozone layer

In addition, all rocket fuel damages the ozone layer, the thin layer that protects the earth from too much UV radiation. The resulting water vapor also destroys the ozone. And it also forms clouds that hold back heat radiation on Earth. The nitrogenous fuels of Branson’s “VSS Unity” in particular damage the ozone layer because the damage in the upper layers of the atmosphere is far greater. CO2 remains in the upper atmosphere for up to 120 years and causes considerable damage there.

Converted, the damage caused by a space tourist is around 150 times greater than that of a long-distance flight. 50 to 75 tons of CO2 are released per nose. For comparison: The German produces around 10 tons of CO2 per year, which is still three to four times more than it should be to keep the earth’s climate in balance.

So it would be good for the climate if Branson, Bezos and Co made the tickets really expensive and the starts remained as rare a pleasure as possible. Because that is the only argument left to space fans: Compared to commercial aviation, the damage caused by rockets is manageable: around 100,000 aircraft take off worldwide every day and emit around 900 million tons of CO2 per year. Rocket launches currently produce less than 25,000 tons of CO2 per year. And private spaceflight has reduced the carbon footprint of individual rocket launches through developments that NASA, ESA and other government space agencies have been unable to do for decades.