Sydney to London in 45 Minutes

Something to think about:

INITIALLY dismissed as another Richard Branson publicity stunt, Virgin Galactic is starting to attract serious attention as the potential of the British entrepreneur’s ambitious space venture hits home.

It may still be early days, but some observers are already cautiously predicting Galactic will be a turning point in the commercial development of space.

Virgin Blue chief executive Brett Godfrey is among those who believe the technology being developed by Branson’s “spaceline” will quickly move beyond joy rides for the well-heeled.

Godfrey, who has paid $280,870 to be among the first to head into space when Virgin Galactic begins operations, can see the concept developing into a new form of travel.

The Virgin boss is far from starry-eyed about his pending trip into the fringes of space. He insists he did not have a lifelong dream to become an astronaut. Instead, he is keen on understanding a technological advance he predicts will produce important spin-offs. He believes there’s no reason technology similar to that used by Galactic will not eventually be used for sub-orbital flights between continents.

Instead of cruising back down to the same place, passengers will be able to go to another spaceport on another continent, the airline executive predicts.

“The reason I’ve invested my money is that I want to be part of the technology and understand it as best we can because I believe this will be the way of the future,” he says.

“If, in 10 or 15 years, we’re not getting to London in 45 minutes from Sydney, then we will have gone backwards.

“And it doesn’t have to be done at a higher fuel cost.”

SpaceShipTwo unveiled

While Godfrey concedes that some people may see the venture as an excuse for rich people to spend money, he points to parallels when aircraft first started flying. “Now it’s mass transportation,” he says.

“I think we’ve got to look at alternative technologies.”

He points out the value to business people of being able to cut down the time spent travelling between countries to just a couple of hours. “The blokes that own corporate jets today, what would they pay to be able to get to Los Angeles or New York or London within a couple of hours?” he says. “A fortune, I think.”

Virgin Galactic passed an important milestone last weekend as it unveiled the design for both SpaceShipTwo, the vehicle that will initially take eight astronauts into space, and White Knight Two, the twin-hulled mothership that will carry SS2 to its launch altitude.

The system is a successor to SpaceShipOne, the Burt Rutan-designed craft that won the $11 million Ansari X Prize after it become the first non-government reusable space vehicle to make it into space.

The original project was backed by a $20 million investment by computing legend Paul Allen – said to be the same amount NASA spent developing a pen that could write in space – although the Microsoft founder was not interested in commercially exploiting the breakthrough. This was when Virgin Group moved in to license the technology. White Knight Two is now close to completion at designer Rutan’s Scaled Composites facility in California’s Mojave Desert and is expected to start flight testing in the northern summer.