Page 35 - Weightlessness News Today

And im listening with you to virgin mission control. lots of applause on the ground here. this is what they have been working on for 17 years building to this moment and the hope is that paying passengers will be coming along very soon. >> were not receiving the broadcast but i know richard is saying something. >> as we wait for the images from inside the spacecraft of the weightlessness, i think back to the interview you did with richard branson who said he was dreaming about this date as a kid...

You cant quite remember everything you wanted to do. i was shooting a story for nbc news at the time and we were doing the flights and experiencing zero gs for, i dont know what it is 20 or 30 seconds or so at a time. youre trying to remember what the heck i was supposed to do. so thats the challenge, i think, when these folks hit that weightlessness. trying to remember all of their tasks may be difficult and, you know, they havent had the two years of astronaut training your veterans have had. ...

What will it be like for branson, why is this launch so significant? >> for this launch is significant because it marks the first sub orbital flight that was going to open up this whole opportunity for other people to basically buy tickets, and get opportunities to go. and what they will see, they will see the beauty of the earth even if its just a glimpse for a few minutes it is better than nothing. and they will get a taste of what it is like to be up in orbit. of course, these are sub orbital...

Plane. so the acceleration is a little bit different. but the profile basically thats three times your weight is being pushed against you is when you talk about going up, you know, mach 3 or thats the kind of feel that you have. but when get in weightlessness for the three to four minutes that we are there, i think that everybody is going to are this incredible feeling of awe, but its not the weightless ness. i think its more the view. my understanding is that unity turns around so that people c...

After that, the rocket will ignite. the passengers on board will experience about 3gs. the motor will be cut and thats when the passengers will express a few moments of weightlessness, the moment richard branson has been waiting for since he was a child. hopefully well get views from inside the cabin. after those moments of weightless, the mission will be deployed and the pilots and the passengers will glide back to earth here at spacesport america, and in typical richard branson style, they hav...

This is not going to fall back. this is going to land properly because the whole point about this exercise was that it was going to be reusable. im going to ask you standby. msnbc is going to join our mothership network nbc for a special report on the historic virgin galactic space launch. were anticipating separation in just a few minutes. good morning. im willie geist in new york. were coming on-air with the launch in space travel. 70-year-old richard branson is aboard the virgin galacticshi...

Today? >> blue origin has a reusableca. its called new sheperd. these are nearly like floor to ceiling windows that are personalized to seats around that capsule. it launches vertically. it goes up into space. the booster separates and flies back for a vertical landing while the capsule keeps going up. the astronauts then feel a few minutes of weightlessness very familiar to few minutes that richard branson felt today. it will re-enter like a capsule. it will land on the ground.

Aircraft, it looks a little bit like a catamaran from the air. that actually carries you, it is the space planner that richard branson will be eight with his other three colleagues. plus, two pilots. three of the folks who will be on this have already been to space, technically. they were on the earlier flights, three others will be given wings when they reach above 50 miles, there is some controversy, we will get to that. anyways, unity will fire its rockets for a minute, it will go almost vert...

The pull back on the stick with the two pilots up front and the thing climbs vertically up hill for about a minute, thing climbs vertically up hill forabouta minute, a minute or two, and they could to altitude, the altitude today was about 85 km, about 53 miles and that is just beyond the line that the us government classifies as being in space outside the atmosphere of the earth and you get a spectacular view. the sky is completely black, you see the mountains below, the coastline, snowcapped m...

He said were going to probably detach at 40,000 feet. it ended up 45,000 to 50,000 feet. hes the big picture guy who has been just so excited about putting this all together. and what youre hearing behind me is the voice, the show that virgin is putting on as they approach that 45,000 level where they detach from the mothership. >> may gemson, you trained for this thing, you know the only way peter remembers whether tom or i were on the flight with him if you threw up. humans are trying not to t...