Gifford's hubby takes key role in race to space for US public
Former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of Gabby Giffords, is joining the World View company as its Director of Flight Crew Operations and may even pilot the first craft taking passengers up to the edge of space .
All aboard for space!
But there are no rockets involved, The lucky passengers travel in a space capsule which gets up there by balloon power The company is expected to begin taking reservations for its flights this week ,
The cost for a trip will be $75,000 - a lot less than as a suborbital trip on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceship, which will cost about $250,000.
Kelly, a former U.S. Navy pilot,became a NASA astronaut in 1996 and flew a space shuttle twice.
He became involved with World View , he told Forbes magazine , in part because he has known co-founders Jane Poynter and Taber Macallum, for a number of years thanks to his wife, former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords,badly injured in a shooting almost three years ago.
“I’ve known them ever since I started dating Gabby,” he said. “I like the idea of giving regular people the opportunity to see the planet from that altitude.”
World View hopes the end of 2016 will see its first voyage. Passengers will ride in a pressurised capsule, carried by a balloon to an altitude of about 100,000 feet.
From that height, they’ll get a similar view of Earth to that enjoyed by astronauts and will see the actual curve of the Earth.
When Felix Baumgartner peformed his famous “space jump” – a balloon took him to an altitude of about 120,000 feet, then he jumped out for his skydive.
CEO Jane Poynter hopes to launch from several different locations, but hopes one will be Page, Arizona, so that its customers can see the Grand Canyon as they float up.
Kelly will be actively involved in the development of the new craft, as well as its procedures and operations. said Forbes.
“ This is going to a very high altitude – only about 6 people have flown this high in a balloon before,” said Kelly. “And the vehicle the balloon is taking up there is essentially a spacecraft. There are similarities in operation to the space shuttle.
“This not an airplane. It doesn’t have wings and it doesn’t have a rocket. In some ways, it’s simpler. And if something simpler, it can often be safer.”
Will he be one of the company’s first pilots when it all gets going?
“I don’t know! We’re going to have to see as we get closer to the first flight. But there’s a strong possibility that I might do that.”
He added,“This is going to give a lot of opportunity for people to see someone that was previously restricted to very few people,” he said.
The capsule, which holds six passengers and two crew, will take about an hour and a half to reach 100,000 feet – just at the edge of space. The balloon will float at that altitude for about two hours to let the passengers to view the Earth move below them. The capsule will then glide down to Earth in about 40 minutes.
Last week, the FAA announced that World View is a commercial space operation and falls under their regulatory jurisdiction.Jane Poynter told Forbes it was “ a very elegant way to get people to space and understand the environment and how to protect people.”
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic flights are planned to launch next year,at $250,000 for a suborbital flight to space. The balloon flight with World View will “only cost $75,000. “Drinks included!” Poynter says .