With the crash of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, there have been setbacks and heartbreaks. This does not mean that the committed team will stop. They have now shifted their attention to the second model of SpaceShipTwo. “The 60-foot-long craft would lift passengers just past the edge of space, where they’d be allowed to unbuckle for about six minutes of weightlessness before being transported back to earth.” This new model has been under construction for two and a half years and is 90% structurally complete.
Why continue on the project that has already taken the life of one?
The reason to this is that without risk, there is nothing gained. I believe that innovations such as Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo should continue to push the limits of what we currently believe is possible.
In the foreseen future, this aircraft technology will be able to be applied to areas such as “traveling from Sydney, Australia to New York, United States in under an hour.”
Without brave men such as pilot Peter Siebold and co-pilot Michael Tyner, even the travel by airplane wouldn’t be possible as there wouldn’t be anyone to take the risk of flying the machine to make it safer for the people following. In our current society, I cannot even imagine a world without planes as they make our world that much more efficient.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/09/technology/virgin-galactic-ceo-interview/index.html
Image: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/files/2014/11/spaceshiptwo2.jpg