Use wechat to scan QR code < / P > < p > to share with friends and circle of friends < / P > < p > according to anonymous sources, British tycoon Richard · < a target = "_ blank" href=" https://news.163.com/news/search?keyword=%E5%B8%83%E5%85%B0%E6%A3%AE "> Richard Branson is likely to beat Amazon founder Jeff_ blank" href=" https://news.163.com/news/search?keyword=%E8%B4%9D%E7%B4%A2%E6%96%AF "> Bezos < / a > (Jeff Bezos), became the first super rich man to enter space. Branson may take the < a target = "on July 4_ blank" href=" https://news.163.com/news/search?keyword=%E7%BB%B4%E7%8F%8D "> virgin < / a > Galaxy suborbital < a target ="_ blank" href=" https://news.163.com/news/search?keyword=%E9%A3%9E%E8%88%B9 "> the spaceship < / a > will enter space two weeks before Bezos' plan < p > the space race between Jeff Bezos (left) and Richard Branson is intensifying, and they are now fighting for who will enter space first. < p > < p > on Monday, local time, Bezos announced that he plans to enter space by the new Shepard suborbital spacecraft developed by its blue origin company on July 20. However, Douglas messier, who has long run the space blog parabolic arc, revealed on Tuesday that Virgin Galactic might send its founder into space before Bezos According to a source who did not want to be named, Virgin Galactic is working out a plan to make Branson's first suborbital manned space flight in its first SpaceShipTwo (named VSS unity) spacecraft on July 4. However, whether the flight can take place depends on whether the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approves its operation license. If the plan goes well, it means that Branson will beat Bezos by a narrow margin in two weeks < p > Messier's sources said that Virgin Galactic started making these plans only after blue origin set a date for its first manned flight. Blue origin made the announcement on May 5, before Bezos announced that he would join the flight. At present, the media has not been able to independently confirm Messier's report. But in a statement to the media, a Virgin Galactic spokesman did not deny the report "We are analyzing the data of the successful flight on May 22," the spokesman said. As announced earlier, we expect to complete the final test flight from this summer to early autumn. At present, we haven't set a date for the next flight. " He added that Branson's flight "is expected to take place in the summer months.". Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic is preparing for a separate test flight, with four company employees acting as "mission experts" and future passengers Virgin Galactic has previously said that "mission experts" will be launched before Branson. But as of Wednesday, the spokesman did not confirm which of the two missions would take off first. "Sending Branson into space could be easy, such as changing the launch sequence, or simply making Branson one of the four Mission experts," said George nfield, former deputy director of the FAA and head of the commercial space transportation office Nafeld added: "Branson has gone through a lot of quite dangerous things in his career, and he obviously believes that this project will succeed. If he feels that the project is going well and he is willing to take part in the first flight, then he has more power to do that. " < p > John Logsdon, founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University and a former member of NASA's advisory board, said: "it's interesting that these billionaires want to entertain themselves by taking their first manned flight in their own aircraft. The Starship will also have orbit test soon. Will Elon Musk participate in it in person? " Napfield believes that Virgin Galactic will easily complete the procedures for Branson to fly on SpaceShipTwo before July 4. "In my opinion, it's absolutely feasible," he said However, he stressed that he did not know the details of the communication between Virgin Galactic and FAA, which provides a license for commercial rocket launches < p > Virgin Galactic may have to modify FAA's license to launch Branson. After the modification, the company will allow "participants" and crew members to enter space. But nafeld said that as long as the data from the last flight did not reveal any major problems, it would be simple and fast to modify the license. "It's quite simple to modify the license, such as" delete the fifth paragraph, "which is no big deal," he said < p > Branson can even be given the opportunity to act as a crew member (such as a mission expert), so Virgin Galactic may not need to modify its license at all. "In my opinion, nothing can stop Branson from flying as a crew member. He is an employee of the company and they can assign him any job they want. It's not a matter of FAA involvement, it's up to the company to make its own decisions. " < p > when asked, a FAA spokesman declined to comment on whether Virgin Galactic plans to fly its first manned flight next month. Instead, the agency confirmed that Virgin Galactic was seeking permission to modify the "participant.". It's not clear how much Virgin Galactic needs to change or accelerate its original plan to get Branson into space before Bezos. "If you're in a hurry, it's always possible to take a shortcut, but the person in charge is unlikely to discourage the boss," rogston said On May 22, Virgin Galactic conducted its first flight test on SpaceShipTwo at a facility in New Mexico. This is the third suborbital flight of the spacecraft over 50 miles (80.4 km) and the first power test in 27 months. Whether Branson can fly on July 4 depends on whether SpaceShipTwo and its carrier, white knight two, are ready to fly in time. The flight on July 4 means its turnaround time is 44 days. From December 2018 to February 2019, SpaceShipTwo's first and second suborbital flights were 72 days apart < p > If Branson took off before Bezos, people might argue whether he really arrived in space. The FAA defines 50 miles (80.4 kilometers) as the boundary of space, but international agencies believe that the boundary of space lies at 62.1 miles (100 kilometers), known as the Carmen line. SpaceShipTwo has made three flights above 80.4km ?
2023-03-22 10:04:35