Featured Image: Virgin Galactic
Lift Off Time | November 02, 2023 – 14:30 UTC | 08:30 MDT |
|---|---|
Mission Name | Galactic 05 (VSS Unity 29) |
Launch Provider | Virgin Galactic |
Customer | Virgin Galactic |
Rocket | SpaceShipTwo |
Launch Location | VMS Eve, Spaceport America, New Mexico, USA |
Payload mass | N/A |
Where is the spacecraft going? | Suborbital trajectory |
Will they be attempting to recover the first stage? | Yes |
Where will the first stage land? | SpaceShipTwo will land on a runway at Spaceport America, New Mexico, USA |
Will they be attempting to recover the fairings? | There are no fairings on SpaceShipTwo |
Are these fairings new? | There are no fairings on SpaceShipTwo |
How’s the weather looking? | TBD |
This will be the: | – 7th fully crewed flight of SpaceShipTwo – 30th flight of VSS Unity – 19th mission for SpaceShipTwo – 7th mission for SpaceShipTwo in 2023 – 10th crewed flight of VSS Unity |
Where to watch | There will be no livestream of this flight |
What’s All This Mean?
For the sixth time in as many months, Virgin Galactic is once again launching a set of humans on a suborbital flight aboard the SpaceShipTwo vehicle from New Mexico in the United States. Similar to the first research flight, Galactic 01, Virgin Galactic will launch researchers in contrast to Galactic 04, the company’s most recent spaceflight, which was a private astronaut mission.
The launch will take place from Spaceport America in New Mexico and will follow a suborbital trajectory. A total of six people will be onboard, including two pilots and four mission specialists. Following the launch, the spacecraft will coast back to Earth and land on a runway like an ordinary airplane.
Who Is On Galactic 05?
VSS Unity has the ability to carry up to six people, two of whom are trained and experienced pilots, while the others are passengers. For Galactic 05, two passengers are conducting research while one other passenger is a private paying customer of Franco-Italian nationality. Dr. Alan Stern, a U.S. Planetary Scientist and Associate Vice President in Southwest Research Institute’s (SwRI) Space Sector and Kellie Gerardi, a U.S. Payload Specialist and Bioastronautics Researcher for the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) will be conducting human-tended experiments that will gather data for Virgin Galactic’s future Delta fleet.
For the sixth space research mission conducted by Virgin Galactic, a total of five experiments are being flown between the two researchers. Two will be conducted by Dr. Alan Stern and three will be conducted by Kellie Gerardi. Both individuals have had long histories of space and human related experimenting.
Dr. Alan Stern’s Experiments
Perhaps best known as the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, Dr. Stern has also previously served as the NASA Associate Administrator. For Galactic 06, Dr. Stern is conducting two experiments, both of which will gather data on himself. He will be wearing a biomedical harness for the duration of the flight to gather physiological data on humans when subjected to suborbital flight conditions.
The device in question is the Accutracker-II biomedical harness which has been worn by Alan on a F-104 flight and has variations that date back through 68 Space Shuttle missions. It measures the users’ vital signs and provides accurate time stamps. An additional goal of this device is to prove it’s function on suborbital missions.
In training for a future NASA suborbital mission, Dr. Stern will learn how to conduct himself in suborbital spaceflight conditions so he can operate a Xybion wide angle visible and ultraviolet camera. This camera has previously been used on two Space Shuttle missions. On this future suborbital flight, Dr. Stern will operate the camera and compare it to it’s operations on the Space Shuttle for astronomical observations. On Galactic 05, Dr. Stern is using a foam mockup for risk reductions purposes.
Kellie Gerardi’s Experiments
The other three experiments are under the supervision of Kelli Gerardi. She is going to observe the mechanics of fluids in a microgravity environment to better understand how to adapt life support equipment to administer medication. For examples, this could lead to better design of syringes for use in space and microgravity environments.
Using the Astroskin biomonitoring device, Gerardi will act as a human test subject during all phases of flight. This device is a shirt with multiple sensors to measure vital signs from the body like heart rate, breathing rate, and temperature. It has never been used in all phases of flight, making Galactic 05 the first flight to record this data during launch, re-entry, and landing.
Finally, Gerardi will be wearing a glucose sensor to motior blood glucose changes over the course of the flight. As this will be one of the first deployments of a glucose monitor in spaceflight environment, it will offer new data into insulin-resistance over time spent in these conditions.
What Is SpaceShipTwo?
SpaceShipTwo is a rocket powered spaceplane that launches from under the wing of a carrier aircraft. It uses a hybrid rocket engine to boost itself up to beyond the edge of space to give paying passengers a few minutes of weightlessness.
VSS Unity is the second SpaceShipTwo vehicle. The previous vehicle, VSS Enterprise, crashed in 2014 in an accident which killed co-pilot Michael Alsbury. The pilot, Peter Siebold, also suffered severe injuries in the accident. That flight was conducted from Mojave Air and Space Port, California, before Virgin Galactic moved its operations to New Mexico. An investigation found that the crash occurred when the tail section accidentally moved into the feathered position during powered ascent.
SpaceShipTwo and its mothercraft, White Knight Two, were designed and built by The Spaceship Company, formed by Burt Rutan and Sir Richard Branson in 2005. Burt Rutan’s pre-existing company, Scaled Composites, previously built and flew SpaceShipOne.
SpaceShipTwo is designed to fly with two flight crew and four passengers. It uses its onboard rocket motor for powered ascent following separation from White Knight Two. On reaching apogee, it deploys a special feathered tail section in order to gain the proper nose-down attitude prior to reentry.
SpaceShipTwo’s Rocket Motor
SpaceShipTwo originally used a hybrid motor developed by Sierra Nevada Corporation. This engine used hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) as fuel and nitrous oxide (N20) as oxidizer. A hybrid engine is one in which the fuel and oxidizer exist in different phases of matter. In this case, the fuel is solid, and the oxidizer is stored as liquid and consumed as a gas.
Around the time of the crash of VSS Enterprise, Virgin Galactic experimented with changing the engine design to run on a polyamide plastic fuel instead of HTPB. Since then, however, Virgin has switched back to using HTPB, but now produces the RocketMotorTwo engines in house instead of buying them from SNC.
What Is White Knight Two?
White Knight Two is the carrier aircraft that takes SpaceShipTwo up from local ground level to an altitude above mean sea level of 15,000 m (50,000 ft). The carrier aircraft then releases SpaceShipTwo which begins its own powered flight seconds later.
White Knight Two then returns to land under normal jet engine power, as during its ascent. The aircraft has four Pratt & Whitney PW308 engines and two fuselages. Each engine provides 30.7 kN (6,900 lbf) of thrust. One fuselage holds the active cockpit for control of the aircraft, while the other fuselage is a direct copy of SpaceShipTwo. This is so that White Knight Two can be used for training crew and passengers on what to expect for their flights on board SpaceShipTwo.
The first White Knight Two vehicle, VMS Eve, flew for the first time in 2008. It carries a flight crew of two, plus additional personnel to take part in the deployment of the spacecraft, and those undergoing training for SpaceShipTwo.
White Knight Two has a service ceiling of 21,000 m (70,000 ft), based on a relatively large wingspan of 43 m (141 ft).
Why not say how high Spaceship Two is aiming for ? What altitude ?