Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2015

ASTRONAUTICS tion which blew up 14 seconds after engines ignition, destroying a load of supplies des- tined to the Interna- tional Space Station. The second accident, occurred 4 days after in the skies over the Mojave Air and Space Port (California), was even worse than the first as it involved the experimental Space- ShipTwo aircraft with two pilots onboard, of whom one died, while the other was injured. The failure of this mis- sion –basically a test flight– not only result- ed in damages to the crew and spaceplane (ended up destroyed), but also severely un- dermined the future prospects of the so- called “space tourism” –a sector targeted by some private aerospace companies run by multi-billionaires. One of these is Sir Rich- ard Branson, the self-made entrepreneur and founder of Virgin Group, a conglomer- ate of about 400 companies stretching from civil aviation to radio broadcasting, motor racing, credit cards circuits, fitness centres, tourism, publishing, movies, clothing, cos- F rom left to right: Burt Rutan, founder of Scaled Com- posites, the pilots Mike Alsbury (kil- led in the late October accident) and Mark Forger, and Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic. Left, the 43 me- tres wide, twin- fuselage, four- engine jet plane SpaceKnightTwo, with attached at its centre the spaceplane SpaceShipTwo. [Virgin Galactic]