Welcome to Private Space Plane (PSP-1)!
With the success of SpaceShipOne, the doors of Private Space Tourism have been opened. It is only a first step. SpaceShipOne is not really a rocket or a space shuttle that flies into an orbit with a required orbital insertion speed of 25 times speed of sound. It is still only a rocket powered plane that reaches Mach 3 (3 times the speed of sound) and only the fringes of outer space at 62 miles or 100 km up and comes back as a glider. So basically it is still a plane. Still, it is good enough for suborbital flights and such space tourism.
We should not forget that the X-15 reached even greater (360,000 ft) height way back in 1958. NASA pretty much abandoned pursuit of Space Plane Development then and even recently. A true space plane that uses Scram Jet engines and goes all the way into the Earth's orbit is prohibitively expensive and too risky to be developed by a private company at this time. A true Space Plane travel to full Earth's orbit will take some time before it becomes a reality.
Richard Branson's Virgin Airlines has signed an exclusive agreement with Rutan's group to build the next phase SpaceShipTwo systems to be used by Virgin Galactic for tourist suborbital flights by 2007 at around $200,000 per person. Rutan's group will be very busy with that and may not have time or resources to build additional SpaceShipTwo systems for other companies and users. Also what happens in the meantime while these new SpaceShipTwos are built? Does suborbital space flight tourism need to wait until then?
We believe there are alternatives. We believe there are planes and technologies out there that can be adapted to allow for Mach 3 suborbital flights even sooner.
ISS has been working on its own system called Private Space Plane 1 or PSP-1. For a carrier aircraft as White Knight is for SpaceShipOne system, PSP-1 uses one of the larger commercial aircrafts instead such as Boeing 747 with a rocket powered smaller plane attached on the top of the Boeing 747 that can reach 60-80 miles at suborbital speeds of 3 Mach. This is a very similar configuration to the one used by NASA to transport Shuttles around.
ISS plans to lease a used Boeing 747 or sign a Joint Venture Agreement with one of the United States major airlines for use of the same and adapt it for this unique application. ISS also plans to sell seats on these Boeing 747 Flights to many interested observers via www.privatespaceclub.com joining us for each PSP-1 launch and have a "Private Space Party" at 45,000 ft. We expect a sold out Boeing 747 for each PSP-1 mission. We have started to receive inquiries and soon we will be offering reservations for such seats that many more can afford.
ISS is also communicating with several private firms already working on several designs and eventual manufacturing of smaller Private Space Planes. Even more aggressively, ISS is also looking into modifying some of the existing planes with smaller solid rocket fuel strapons and other modifications to make them suborbital worthy. The ideal way would be to have 2-3 different PSP systems available to fly off of the Boeing-747 and into the suborbit.
The interest in suborbital flights is very significant already. There already exists a back log of over 125 individuals who have placed $100,000 deposits for such suborbital flights even though such may be three years away via SpaceShipTwo and Virgin Galactic.
We believe Private Space needs and can sustain many more different suborbital space flight systems and approaches. It is no different than when airlines became private. It is the competition and different airline choices and services that drove the industry to its growth and commercial level it enjoys today. Access to Suborbital Private Space will follow a very similar route!
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