Reason behind the title Race to Space is due to the competition between two
companies’ blue origin and virgin galactic. There is lot of controversy and
competition between them.
According to international aeronautics federation, the boundary between earth atmosphere and space the Karman line is about 62 miles above earth surface. But according to NASA space starts about 50 miles above earth. virgin galactic claims they had travel above 50 miles and became the first commercial tour in space. But according to NASA blue origin is the first commercial flight to travel in space above Karman line.
Virgin galactic scheduled their flight later in summer. But when competitor Jeff Bezos announced to fly in space on 20 July 2021, the virgin galactic
flight was rescheduled on 11 July 2021.
In this blog we will discuss about these to competitors in deep. So, let’s
start.
Blue Origin
Blue origin is a privately funded American aerospace manufacturer and
suborbital spaceflight services company established by the founder and
executive chairmen of amazon Jeff Bezos in year 2000. The company names as blue
which refers to earth as the point of origin.
Blue origin done its first crewed mission into suborbital spaceflight on 20
July 2021. This flight was approximately 10 mins and successfully crossed the
Karman line. Jeff Bezos with his brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver
Daemen has successfully completed space tour.
Blue origin developing reusable and more reliable rockets which reduces the
entire cost of space mission. They have developed a technology of vertical
takeoff and vertical landing of rocket and also tested successfully in their
recent suborbital space flight.
Initially blue origin company serves as a rocket supplier for other
organizations through contractual basis to build a large engine BE-4 for US
launch system operator united launch alliance. Company is on moved to
orbital spaceflight development business in 2014. Blue origin decided and
announced plans to manufacture and fly its own orbital launch vehicle names New
Glenn.
Jeff Bezos unveiled that their vision for space and also plans for a moon
lander blue moon will get ready till 2024.
Design of New Shepard
Blue origin new Shepard spaceflight consist of two vehicles. It is
controlled entirely by on-board computers. It has a crew capsule on top which
able to accommodate two or three astronauts launched by rocket booster. These
two vehicles lift off in space together and separate during flight. After
separation rocket booster is designed to do vertical landing. And remaining
crew capsule follows separate trajectory to touchdown with the help of
parachutes. Both vehicles are able to recover and reuse.
Achievements done by Blue Origin
- Wally funk
of age 82, became the oldest person to fly in space.
- Oliver
Daemen of age 18, was the first ever commercial astronaut to purchase
tickets and fly to space. He also became the youngest person to fly in
space.
- Jeff and
mark Bezos became the first siblings to ever fly in space together.
- New Shepard became the first commercial vehicle under suborbital reusable launch vehicle license to fly paying customers both payloads and astronauts to space and back.
Virgin Galactic
Virgin galactic is American spaceflight company founded by business man
Richard Branson in year 2004. The company mainly focus on developing
spacecrafts and suborbital flights to space tourists.
On 11 July 2021, Richard Branson along with Beth Moses, Colin Bennett and
one Indian astronaut Sirisha Bandla successfully completed their first space
tour in their own spacecraft.
The company said that, passengers will able to do space tour after 2022
after two more test flights were done.
Design of spacecraft
The carrier aero plane is called mothership named white knight two. This
mothership is large aircraft connected by central wing. The second and main
spacecraft is rocket plane named VSS Unity attached to mothership.
Mothership and VSS unity are able to take off together. When they reach at
high altitude about 44000 feet two vehicles detached following different
trajectories. After detachment VSS Unity is controlled by two pilots in VSS
Unity. It is able to accommodate 5,6 passengers excluding two pilots.
VSS unity is able to fly at speed 4000 km/h. and at altitude around 110km.
the whole journey take about 90 minutes to complete space tour. passengers can
experience the weightlessness about 3 minutes.
According to officials of virgin galactic 640 costumers signed up for space
tour by august 2013. Initially ticket prices are about $200,000 per person and
later increased to $250,000 per person. And they are planning to start
commercial flights by 2022.
Achievements done by Virgin Galactic
- On 11 July
2021, virgin galactic became the first spaceflight company to fly
independently launch a civilian in space.
- Sirisha
Bandla, one of the crew members is an Indian American commercial astronaut
became the second India born woman to go to space and fourth Indian to
travel in space after Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
- According
to virgin galactic, the space boundary is about 50 miles above the earth.
And they claim that virgin galactic is first commercial space craft had
travelled to space.
SpaceX
SpaceX is also private company founded by one of the richest person in the
world, business man Elon Musk. The idea of SpaceX is totally different
from blue origin and virgin galactic. When whole world is talking about
suborbital space tours, SpaceX is developing and working on orbital space tours
and manned mars missions.
Elon musk said by 2026 they were able to reach mars along with biggest
rocket named starship and colonize the mars with millions of peoples.
There is lot to discuss about SpaceX. We will discuss more about SpaceX in
upcoming post.
Comparison made by Blue Origin
|
|
Blue origin |
Virgin galactic |
|
Flies about Karman line
|
Yes |
No |
|
Vehicle type
|
Rocket |
High altitude airplane |
|
Windows
|
Largest windows in space |
Airplane sized windows |
|
Escape system |
Yes |
No |
|
Ozone layer impact |
Minimal (exhaust is water) |
High (more harmful) |
|
Flight history |
15 (safe flights) |
3(above 80 km) |
So, it’s too much for today. We will meet again with new interesting topic.
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