Skip to main content

Virgin Galactic: Two British firms look at developing space rocket

Two British firms, including Virgin, are looking into developing a rocket capable of putting small satellites in orbit, it has emerged.


Sir Richard Branson: Virgin Galactic: Two British firms look at developing a rocket to send satellites into orbit
Virgin Galactic, which was set up by Sir Richard to take passengers on short, weightless trips in space Photo: BLOOMBERG NEWS

Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) and Sir Richard Branson's space travel venture Virgin Galactic want to build a device that can be launched from an aircraft and carry satellites hundreds of miles above the earth's surface.

The concept would be similar to the US Pegasus system, which uses a regular aeroplane to launch a rocket into orbit.

Virgin Galactic, which was set up by Sir Richard to take passengers on short, weightless trips in space, features a carrier jet known as WhiteKnightTwo. It is intended to lift the space tourists' rocket plane up to launch height.

But SSTL and Virgin Galactic are working on the idea of using the aircraft as a platform to release a British satellite launcher.

Dr Adam Baker from SSTL said he was looking at developing a device that could take a payload of at least 50kg into an orbit with a minimum altitude of 400km (248 miles). The service could then be sold on the open market.

He said: "Hopefully we can do it for a lot less money than the current providers.

"It costs something like five million to 10 million dollars at the moment to get one of our smaller satellites into space. What we are targeting is to see if we can do this for a million dollars.

"I think that's a very challenging number but I'm confident we can get very close to that – and if you could build the satellite itself for a couple of million dollars, all of a sudden you've got a very attractive package for well under five million dollars that lets your customers do something pretty capable in orbit."

SSTL makes earth monitoring satellites which can map the planet during emergencies.

It is owned by Europe's biggest space company, EADS Astrium.

Virgin Galactic unveiled WhiteKnightTwo last year and expects to produce its tourist spaceliner, SpaceShipTwo, later this year.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Manual for Alienware M11x with Sandy Bridge confirms NVIDIA GT540M graphics

If the previous Alienware M11x R3 spec leak got you all giddy, then we have some good news for you: according to a manual dug up by one of our eagle-eyed readers, it appears that this year's M11x refresh will indeed be coming with second-gen Core i5 ULV and Core i7 ULV options, along with a faster DDR3 bus (1333MHz instead of 800MHz), a higher-res webcam (2MP instead of 1.3MP), an HD TrueLife LCD, and optional 3G / 4G mobile broadband. But of course, the real meat on this laptop is its graphics card, which turns out to be an NVIDIA GeForce GT540M with either 1Gb or 2GB of dedicated memory -- not bad for a laptop of this size. Unsurprisingly, no dates or prices are mentioned here, but given the early start of inventory clearance, it shouldn't be long before Round Rock reveals all.  Dell (ZIP)

Test subjects with electrode implants use mind control to move a cursor

As trippy as mind-control still seems to us, we've already seen it implemented in everything from wheelchairs to pricey gaming (and car driving!) headsets. But the problem is that they measure brain activity outside the skull -- you know, the thing we've evolved to shield the murky goings-on in our minds from prying EEG sensors. Now, though, a team of Washington University researchers appears to have happened upon a more effective -- albeit, invasive -- approach. The researchers got some brave specimens to move a mouse cursor by implanting plastic pads containing electrodes underneath their skulls, with the sensors sitting on the surface of the brain . That, they say, gives them access to more telling, high-frequency waves that say a lot more about cognitive intentions. In the end, the subjects moved the cursors by thinking one of these sounds: "ee," "ah," "oo," and "eh." Brain-computer interfaces ain't new, of course, b...

Commodore USA puts the new C64 up for pre-sales, unveils far-less-retrotastic VIC-Slim

Desktops Commodore USA puts the new C64 up for pre-sales, unveils far-less-retrotastic VIC-Slim By Sean Hollister posted Apr 6th 2011 8:43PM Now that Commodore USA has sufficiently piqued your curiosity with a revamped Commodore 64 prototype, it's ready to capitalize on the idea. Quite literally, we might add. $595 buys you the basic basic model with an 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Atom D525 chip, NVIDIA ION 2 graphics, 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive -- which it promises to deliver by "early June" -- with hundred-dollar increments adding premium features like an additional 2GB of memory, a Blu-Ray drive, up to 1TB of storage, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth. However, if you're simply looking for a compact keyboard computer (rather than reliving 80's nostalgia) there's another option on tap -- a likely rebadged thin wedge of a machine that Commodore's...