Photo: Virgin Galactic
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, stirred by the incredible advancements achieved in the field of space exploration over the past few years, will soon open a gallery dedicated to commercial space flight.
The gallery will be called Future of Spaceflight and will feature among other objects a hybrid rocket motor built by TSC for Virgin Galactic. The rocket motor is the one which was used on the VSS Unity on December 13, when Richard Branson’s spaceship reached the edge of space for the first time.
The piece of hardware was presented last week in Washington DC. Officially called Case-Throat-Nozzle (CTN) assembly, it is according to Virgin Galactic the most powerful hybrid rocket to be used in crewed flight to date.
The CTN has a weight of 3,000 pounds and generates 320 kN of thrust, along with a burn duration of 60 seconds.
With this component's help, VSS Unity reached an altitude of 51.4 miles (82.7 km) miles in December, earning its two pilots, Mark Stucky and Frederick Sturckow, the Commercial Astronaut Wings, an honor awarded to only two other humans in history.
“We’re proud to be making history as we work towards launching the world’s first commercial spaceline, and today we could not be more delighted to donate a piece of that history to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum for its wonderful new exhibition,” said in a statement the man behind Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson.
Now that the space barrier has been breached by Virgin Galactic, the next step is to put actual tourists inside the ship. The first to fly to space in the Unity is Branson himself sometime this year.
For the rest of the people who want to get to space for a brief period of time, a payment of $250,000 is required. Virgin Galactic says about 600 civilians have already signed up for a trip.
The piece of hardware was presented last week in Washington DC. Officially called Case-Throat-Nozzle (CTN) assembly, it is according to Virgin Galactic the most powerful hybrid rocket to be used in crewed flight to date.
The CTN has a weight of 3,000 pounds and generates 320 kN of thrust, along with a burn duration of 60 seconds.
With this component's help, VSS Unity reached an altitude of 51.4 miles (82.7 km) miles in December, earning its two pilots, Mark Stucky and Frederick Sturckow, the Commercial Astronaut Wings, an honor awarded to only two other humans in history.
“We’re proud to be making history as we work towards launching the world’s first commercial spaceline, and today we could not be more delighted to donate a piece of that history to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum for its wonderful new exhibition,” said in a statement the man behind Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson.
Now that the space barrier has been breached by Virgin Galactic, the next step is to put actual tourists inside the ship. The first to fly to space in the Unity is Branson himself sometime this year.
For the rest of the people who want to get to space for a brief period of time, a payment of $250,000 is required. Virgin Galactic says about 600 civilians have already signed up for a trip.
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