What's the Deal with Commercial Space Travel?

Commercial air travel is widely accepted as one of the safest means of transportation, but will the next frontier of transportation be as safe? Commercial space travel is a new means of transportation, which allows passengers to travel into space, to experience weightlessness for a few short minutes. While initially sounding like a great experience, it comes at a price, well over 100,000 dollars. The big question on everyone's mind, is it safe?

Just a few years ago, the Ansari X-Prize was designed to spur commercial space travel. Designed to reward the first company which could develop a reusable craft capable of traveling to space twice within a 14 day time frame, the X-Prize featured a 10 million dollar purse. This prize was awarded to the Scaled Composites Company of Burt Rutan. The ship, Space Ship One, was a small ship, capable of taking a pilot to space, with a 300 pound cargo. Space Ship One has one fundamental difference from most space vehicles, its initial launch mode. While most ships launch vertically under their own power, Space Ship One is ferried to roughly 50,000 feet by a plane similar to an airliner. At that point, the space ship separates from the mother ship, and ignites a rocket motor, propelling it to well over 350,000 feet, beyond the definition of space.

After the successful flights of Space Ship One, the Virgin Group, owned by Richard Branson, contracted with Scaled Composites to design and construct a new ship, capable of carrying 6 fare paying passengers to space. The new space company, known as Virgin Galactic, is the first company offering trips into outer space. This company has stated intentions to initially launch flights from the Mojave Spaceport, located in California, until their primary launch facility is completed. Spaceport America, located in New Mexico is the corporate headquarters of the company, and will eventually be the primary spaceport for Virgin Galactic flights. Other possible launch sites are rumored to be in Sweden, Scotland and even possibly Kennedy Space Center, used by NASA for all manned space flights. Initially, Virgin Galactic will offer one flight per week, and may eventually offer up to two flights per day.

Virgin Galactic has promised that all space flights will be safe, due to certain safety features designed into the spacecraft by Scaled Composites. A new hybrid rocket motor features only Nitrous Oxide for fuel, which is relatively safe to handle. Also, re-entry is accomplished by swinging the wings to allow the craft to essentially fall through the atmosphere, and then convert into a glider, allowing for controlled landings at an airport. However, it should be noted that spaceflight will always be a particularly dangerous activity, due to the speeds needed to achieve flight, as well as the altitudes involved.

Other companies are developing space tourism systems, however, to date, none has successfully flown. As other companies enter the market, it's expected that the price will drop, due to the supply of flights being available. At this time, it is rumored to cost over 200,000 US dollars to purchase a ticket on one of the initial flights offered by Virgin Galactic. Commercial space travel is upon us in this new age, however, it is only affordable to the ultra wealthy members of society, similar to commercial air travel of the early 1900's.