Monday, April 29, 2013


I did an article review on “Virgin Galactic one test flight closer to space tourism” By Sharon Gaudin which is about how a Company tests rocket as it takes reservations and deposits for commercial space flights. The company, which is looking to be the world's first commercial space-line, now is in the final phase of vehicle testing after launching space ship Two at 10:02 a.m. ET from the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California. "The first powered flight of Virgin Spaceship Enterprise was without any doubt, our single most important flight test to date," said Virgin Galactic Founder Richard Branson, in a statement. "Today's supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion of the spaceship's powered flight envelope, with a very realistic goal of full space flight by the year's end." Branson called today's test flight "history in the making." The company is planning on making its first space flight before the end of this year. Virgin Galactic already is taking reservations for space flights. People can sign up to be what the company calls Pioneer Astronauts, which would enable them to be among the first 1,000 people to go into space with the company. It also requires a full upfront payment of $200,000. Virgin Galactic noted on its website that these seats are nearly sold out. Those interested also can sign up for the Spaceship Charter program, which costs $1 million and gets the buyer an exclusive flight with five friends.
 I would certainly love to take a flight. They have worked these flights up to code and to what they need to be, this company has really revolutionized flying into space for the public. Overall this was a great article to read and really opened up my eyes.

1 comment:

  1. There were many things that Vivian did well in her review of “Virgin Galactic one test flight closer to space tourism”. Firstly, I thought it was really cool that she had a couple of links in her review that brought us to some links related to the article. I also thought that Vivian’s use of quotes in her review was really well-done and enhanced the review a lot. A third thing that I thought was done excellently in the review was the presentation of detailed information about the testing and planned first flight, such as time, cost, and amount of people flying. This really made the reader more interested in the article.
    Although Vivian did a good job of reviewing the article, there were a couple of things that could have been changed to improve the article a little. The first thing I noticed was that there was no proper title of her review, and this threw me off a little when I was looking at the different reviews in the blog. Another thing that I noticed was that she never gave the name of the person running this testing program or the owner of Virgin Galactic. I think it would have been nice if she could have said one of these people.
    I learned a lot from reading Vivian’s review of this article and then the article itself. One of the most interesting thing that I learned was that people could already sign up for a commercial flight to space.

    ReplyDelete