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Virgin Galactic Successfully Reaches Space (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up,-up,-and-away dept.

The latest test flight by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic successfully rocketed to space and back. From a report: The firm's SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket ship reached a height of 82.7km, beyond the altitude at which space is said to begin. It marked the plane's fourth test flight and followed earlier setbacks in the firm's space programme. Sir Richard is in a race with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to send the first fee-paying passengers into space. He founded the commercial spaceflight company in 2004, shortly after Mr Musk started SpaceX and Jeff Bezos established Blue Origin. In 2008, Virgin Galactic first promised sub-orbital spaceflight trips for tourists would be taking place "within 18 months". It has since regularly made similar promises to have space flights airborne in the near future.

4 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. not quite space by dmoen · · Score: 5, Informative

    Virgin Galactic's marketing department defines space as 80km. Most of the rest of us define it as the Karman line, which is 100km. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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    1. Re:not quite space by Rei · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Kármán line isn't just an arbitrary altitude, either. It's the point at which the atmosphere relatively abruptly starts transitioning from "well mixed, with a composition like at the surface" to "increasingly dominated by light and ionized species"

      Of course, Kármán defined it as the rough point at which lift ceases being relevant for an aircraft moving at orbital velocities (which is also a meaningful definition).

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    2. Re:not quite space by Snowgen · · Score: 2, Informative

      Virgin Galactic's marketing department defines space as 80km. Most of the rest of us define it as the Karman line, which is 100km

      80KM is the altitude at which the US military, FAA, and NASA grants the United States Astronaut Badge

  2. Weasel words by arth1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The firm's SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket ship reached a height of 82.7km, beyond the altitude at which space is said to begin.

    "Is said to" depends on who says it. The mesosphere extends to around 85 km.
    The FAI considers anything below 100 km (the Karman line) to be aeronautics, not astronautics.