Virgin Galactic Achieves First Crewed Space Flight

Richard Branson became the first billionaire to fly to space aboard a vehicle he helped fund.

Technical diagram of SpaceShipTwo. (Image courtesy of Virgin Galactic.)

Technical diagram of SpaceShipTwo. (Image courtesy of Virgin Galactic.)

Virgin Galactic and its founder, Richard Branson, rocketed into history on July 11, 2021, when the billionaire and his fellow passengers became the first travelers to ride into space aboard a rocket. Branson and three Virgin Galactic employees, along with two pilots, achieved the feat aboard the SpaceShipTwo.

The Spacecraft

SpaceShipTwo, a winged plane with capacity for two pilots and six passengers, is fully reusable and designed to carry people into space regularly and frequently—a groundbreaking design that shows the potential for space tourism.

The vehicle is powered by a hybrid rocket motor, which combines elements of both solid rockets and liquid hydrogen propulsion: the design simplicity of a solid rocket is married to the high thrust efficiency of liquid hydrogen. The motor consists of two main sections: a large tank that stores the liquid oxidizer (nitrous oxide) and a cartridge that stores the hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene solid fuel.

“The operation is very simple,” said Enrico Palermo, president of the Spaceship Company—Virgin Galactic’s sister company dedicated to manufacturing the spacecraft. “We pressurize the nitrous oxide in the main tank, we open the valve, flow the nitrous into the CTN (the case/throat/nozzle, the main section of the engine), ignite it and propel our spaceship forward.”

One of the most unique design components of this innovative spacecraft is its adjustable wings and tail booms—which allow SpaceShipTwo to essentially change its shape to maximize its aerodynamics in space and in Earth’s atmosphere alike. When in space, the wings and tail booms are rotated 90 degrees upward: this allows the pilots to control SpaceShipTwo’s flight stability and deceleration rate via aerodynamic forces as it descends back into the atmosphere. This “feathering” process is similar to how a badminton birdie descends through the air: it induces high drag forces from oncoming air resistance and holds the spacecraft at the right angle, descending right side up. Thanks to this technology, the vehicle glides down for a landing rather than using its rocket to descend. If SpaceShipTwo were reentering the atmosphere from low Earth orbit or higher, it would need a completely different technology to navigate its way back to Earth.

Passenger safety and comfort are heightened within SpaceShipTwo’s passenger capsule itself. The exposure to g-forces is mitigated on the way up and on the way back down through custom-designed and articulated seats. And the cabin itself is designed to give passengers the best zero-gravity experience possible, with plenty of space to float about and numerous windows to look out of.

SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital vehicle designed for short trips into space and back and is not designed for trips into orbit.

SpaceShipTwo is carried aloft by another innovative aircraft, Virgin Galactic’s own WhiteKnightTwo—a cargo vehicle featuring two parallel fuselages and four engines in a configuration resembling that of a catamaran. The craft is specifically designed to carry SpaceShipTwo to high altitudes and is the largest all-composite aircraft in service.

WhiteKnightTwo is a custom-built aircraft designed to carry SpaceShipTwo to extreme heights. (Image courtesy of Virgin Galactic.)

WhiteKnightTwo is a custom-built aircraft designed to carry SpaceShipTwo to extreme heights. (Image courtesy of Virgin Galactic.)

The twin fuselages of WhiteKnightTwo have the same design as SpaceShipTwo’s single fuselage. This provides two benefits: it allows for common component manufacturing that reduces time and costs, and it allows WhiteKnightTwo to function as a pilot trainer for future SpaceShipTwo pilots.

Both SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo are built with composites. “We probably couldn’t do this mission if we were not building these vehicles out of all carbon fiber construction,” said Palermo. “We are leveraging the true benefit of composites in these spacecrafts, designing and building structures that are efficient and as a result lighter and therefore need less propulsion to soar into space.”

Most of the vehicles’ main airframe components are sandwich structures: the outer and inner skins are made of a prepreg carbon fiber weave, while the inner material is aerospace-grade honeycomb that exhibits exceptional strength and resilience while providing corrosion and fire resistance and insulation properties.

The design of SpaceShipTwo was originally created as an entry in the $10 million Ansari X Prize meant to promote private spaceflight investments. SpaceShipOne, designed by Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic, won the prize in 2004. Virgin Galactic later bought out Scaled Composites to become the sole owner of the technology.

The Flight

Virgin Galactic performed the flight based out of its flight center in New Mexico, called Spaceport America.

WhiteKnightTwo transported SpaceShipTwo up to 50,000 feet—about 9.5 miles above Earth. SpaceShipTwo detached itself and, after making a momentary dip, fired up its engine. The spacecraft ascended rapidly, hitting speeds of Mach 3, to the apogee of its flight path of 53 miles in the air (its maximum achievable height is about 55 miles). At that point the vehicle achieved weightlessness and rolled onto its back to give the passengers an unprecedented view of the Earth for a few minutes while they detached from their seats and floated free in the cabin.

SpaceShipTwo then deployed its feathering system, rotating the wings and tail upward, and began its descent. The spacecraft glided to a successful landing back in the New Mexico desert a short distance from where it lifted off.

Virgin Galactic’s flight path. (Image courtesy of Virgin Galactic.)

Virgin Galactic’s flight path. (Image courtesy of Virgin Galactic.)

The mission was SpaceShipTwo’s fourth test flight to the edge of space. The company had its difficulties along the way, particularly a fatal ground accident in 2007 and a tragic failed flight in 2014, caused by premature deployment of the feathering system, which resulted in the loss of the pilot and severe injuries to the copilot.

Like fellow spacefaring billionaire Jeff Bezos, Branson participated in the test flight himself as a show of confidence in the spacecraft and Virgin Galactic’s program. “You’ve got to remember that Virgin Galactic has people on every spaceflight … the fact that I’m willing to fly with those people shows confidence,” he said. “The least the founder of the company can do is go up there and fly with his people.”

Virgin Galactic’s first space flight.

Next Steps for Virgin Galactic

With a successful flight and a full complement of passengers in the books, Virgin Galactic is inspecting the vehicles and analyzing the flight data. And the company is already booking spots for future space tourists on upcoming flights. The company intends to conduct one more test flight before opening its doors to paying customers. Virgin Galactic has already sold 600 tickets at a hefty price of $250,000 each—and interestingly, one of the future passengers is Elon Musk, a billionaire with space ambitions of his own.

Virgin Galactic isn’t only using its vehicles for tourists: the SpaceShipTwo system provides researchers and companies a unique opportunity to perform microgravity experiments—offering the ability to carry out routine, repeatable and affordable access to space for payloads and researchers alike.

Branson already has some improvements in mind for the next set of passengers. “I’ve had my notebook with me and I’ve written down 30 or 40 little things that will make the experience for the next person who goes to space with us that much better.…The only way sometimes you can find these little things is to get in a spaceship and go to space and experience it for yourself.”

Richard Branson isn’t the only billionaire to make it to space—Jeff Bezos achieved the feat a mere nine days after Branson. Read more about the technologies used by both men to achieve their spaceflight dreams at Billionaires Joyride to Space. What Technology Did They Use?