Crossing the line

The Karman Line isn’t, as the name suggests, a physical boundary of any kind. Indeed it’s not even a line. Yet it’s a boundary that 150 adventure-hungry individuals are prepared to pay $200,000 to cross because the Karman Line, named after Hungarian-American aeronautical engineer and physicist Theodore von Karman, marks the theoretical edge of space. It’s the point 100km above the earth’s surface where, by general consent, ordinary terrestrial flight ends and space flight begins. Putting it another way, you need rocket ships to get up there.

These early-birds have put down $40,000 deposit for a seat on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo when it makes the first commercial passenger flight above the Karman Line. And the day of that inaugural flight came a step closer in mid-October when Richard Branson’s highest-profile business venture opened the world’s first commercial Spaceport in southern New Mexico.

Named with a typical Branson flourish as Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space, the building will be the starting point for sub-orbital flights aboard SS2. At first derided as a wacky, publicity-seeking venture, the flights look like they will become a reality within the next two years or so, just as soon as the company has passed all the safety checks. “Safety is our North Star,” insists George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic’s chief executive and president.

Already though, SS2 has completed 30 full flights, while WhiteKnightTwo, the mother-ship that will launch the passengers beyond the edge of space has achieved no less than 75 accident-free take-offs and touch-downs.

For Branson, who predicts space travel will become “one of the most important industrial sectors of the 21st century”, the business case for Virgin Galactic is obvious. It’s not just about taking up six passengers at a time – SS2’s current maximum payload – at a ticket price of about $950 a minute for the 3 ½-hour sub-orbital flight. With a further 450 reservations already confirmed, passenger flights will continue to provide a steady revenue stream for the group.

The commercial return is also measured in research, and Virgin Galactic has just signed a $4.75m charter contract with NASA, the US space agency, to conduct experiments up there. The long-term strategy also calls for space science missions, satellite launches and eventually orbital flights in the thinnest of air. In time Branson plans to open similar Spaceports around the world. Other companies also see the potential and are working on rival projects, but Virgin Galactic has by common consent made a big head start.

However, the technical challenges remain considerable. The mother ship will take SS2 to a height of only 16km, albeit considerably higher than the flight path of trans-oceanic commercial passenger jets, before releasing it and its passengers. From there, SS2 will hurtle towards the Karman Line some 84km above at a speed of Mach 3, 1600kms an hour.

But the space ship won’t stop there. Its two pilots will take SS2 to about 110km for a sub-orbital period of six minutes before making a tricky re-entry. The pilots fold up the wings for a rocket-like descent below the Karman Line, then re-open them for a long unpowered glide back to the runway where SS2 lands under its own steam. Naturally, Branson and his family have booked themselves on the first flight.