Virgin Galactic’s CEO dismissed comparisons between their space journey and the OceanGate disaster in an interview praising the company’s first commercial mission.
Michael Colglazier spoke on Thursday about criticizing the company founded by Richard Branson in 2004 with the aim of providing commercial spaceflight in the wake of the submarine that killed all five on board last week.
Colglazier said that while his heart went out to everyone affected by the tragedy, this is “simply comparing apples to oranges.”
“Virgin Galactic ships are built, designed and maintained in a manner that leverages decades of experience in the aerospace industry,” he said, adding that the company has been regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration since 2016.
Colglazier noted that the FAA “is with us in Mission Control on every flight,” and that they also dated parts.
Virgin Galactic’s CEO dismissed comparisons between their space journey and the OceanGate disaster in an interview praising the company’s first commercial mission
He noted that the idea of space travel is a new one for commercial entities and so they claim to have taken great care to get it right.
“The foundation of safety that this whole company is built around is not our whole industry, especially Virgin Galactic is going to build this and fly when we are safe. And we do the data analysis. We’ve done the hard technical work, we’re maintaining it properly.’
He told CNBC which they launched today because ‘we are ready today’ and ‘we won’t fly until we are ready’.
Much was made about the lack of preparedness for the Titan submarine, with OceanGate CEO Stockon Rush said the explorers would be safe and have the oxygen they needed to survive, but didn’t seem ignorant of the risks either.
You know, there’s a limit. You know, at some point, security is pure waste. I mean, if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed,’ he said.
He also talked about how simplistic the design and technology meant to take them underwater, including using a white Xbox controller to perform the operation.
Italian researcher Walter Villadei and the company’s astronaut instructor Colin Bennett shared a celebratory moment inside the craft that left Earth’s atmosphere on Thursday and flew to the edge of space to conduct science experiments in weightless conditions.
Today was the company’s first “purchased” mission, rather than just a test flight. The 90-minute mission took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico around 8:30 a.m. local time.
Michael Colglazier spoke on Thursday about criticism of the company founded by Richard Branson in 2004 with the aim of providing commercial spaceflight in the wake of the submarine that killed all five on board last week
Colglazier said that while his heart went out to everyone affected by the tragedy, this is “simply comparing apples to oranges.”
Virgin Galactic launched its first commercial flight on Thursday. The crew celebrated with a fist pump as they traveled to space
A crew of Italian researchers celebrated a successful launch aboard Virgin Galactic’s first commercial flight that took them more than 80 kilometers above the surface
The rocket plane, known as Unity, was tethered to a “mothership,” an aircraft carrier named VMS Eve.
Eve is an aircraft carrier of sorts that Unity raised 44,500 feet above the Earth’s surface to release.
Unity ignited its thruster and stopped when it reached space.
At the apex of the flight, the spaceplane “feathered” its wings open and hovered above our planet’s atmosphere, allowing the men to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and epic views of the final frontier.
The crew also held an Italian flag while hovering in the cabin.
“Welcome to space, astronauts,” Virgin Galactic’s Sirisha Bandla said in a live stream.
The mission, dubbed Galactic 01, landed back on the New Mexico runway at 11:50 a.m.
Also on board for the epic journey were Pantaleone Carlucci and Lieutenant Colonel Angelo Landolfi.
Unlike Branson’s rivals, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, this flight was not crewed by wealthy individuals or celebrities shelling out hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars for the experience.
The focus of the Galactic 01 mission was to test 13 zero-gravity experiments, which were collected biometric data, measured cognitive performance, and recorded how certain liquids and solids mix in microgravity conditions.
And the three Italian researchers did not pay for their seats.
The flight, from take-off to landing, took about 90 minutes
Cheers erupted around the runway as the larger carrier named VMS Eve blasted off the runway and lifted off the ground with SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity strapped tightly to its underbelly
Costs for future tickets were originally slated to be $250,000 each, though Virgin Galactic recently increased that price to $450,000.
Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin also use rockets to launch capsules into space, while Branson chose to take a different approach with airborne launches.
Once Virgin Galactic’s planes reach an altitude of about 14,000 feet, the mothership releases the spaceplane, which will then blast toward the final frontier.
The technique has been explored over decades of flight research, including the X-1, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier, and the X-15, the fastest piloted aircraft ever flown, reaching a top speed of 4,520 miles per hour during a 1967 flight.
And it reduces the need for massive amounts of fuel because the craft doesn’t use the rocket’s power to crawl through the dense lower atmosphere.
The rocket plane, SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity, reached speeds of Mach 3 within seconds of being released by Eve at 11:30 a.m. ET and blasted to the edge of space
Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane was powered by two pilots while the four passengers sat in the cabin waiting for space.
For Italian Air Force Colonel Walter Villadei, designated commander, the flight aboard the spaceplane was part of his astronaut training for a future mission to the International Space Station.
Joining him on Thursday are two Italian colleagues: Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Angelo Landolfi, a physician and flight surgeon, and Pantaleone Carlucci, a research board member who acts as a flight engineer and cargo specialist.
The crew was completed by their Virgin Galactic trainer, Colin Bennett, the company’s lead “astronaut instructor,” and Unity’s two pilots, Michael Masucci and Nicola Pecile.