On Friday evening, 61-year-old Franz Haider from the Waldviertel became the first Austrian space tourist to fly into space. He bought his ticket from the space company Virgin Galactic in 2007. Almost seventeen years later, clear weather now made it possible to carry out the mission ‘Galactic 06’.
From ‘Spaceport America’ in the US state of New Mexico, Haider flew with three other now ‘astronauts’ towards weightlessness, which lasted a few minutes.
The entrepreneur from Sallingberg (Lower Austria) is known as ‘Astronaut 025’ of the company Virgin Galactic, founded in 2004 by British billionaire Richard Branson.
90 kilometers above the Earth’s surface
He is one of the first passengers who, after a long period of development, were taken on a commercial flight, first on the aircraft carrier “VMS Eve” to an altitude of about 15 kilometers and from there on the spaceship “VSS Unity”, which resembles a private jet Company information at an altitude of approximately 90 kilometers. According to the definition of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), this is sufficient to be classified as an ‘astronaut’.
Following its scheduled undocking from the ‘mother ship’ shortly after 6.40pm (CET), the just over 18 meter long ‘VSS Unity’ accelerated in a near-vertical climb to 3,600 km/h – three times the speed of sound.
After a few minutes it was all over again
During this maneuver, near weightlessness is achieved before the summit, over which the vehicle passes upside down. In addition to Haider, there were three other space tourists and two pilots on board.
Footage from the cabin of the ‘spaceship’ showed a relieved crew unbuckling their seatbelts and floating freely in the cabin for a while. According to Virgin Galactic, the altitude at the time was approximately 89 kilometers.
After a few minutes, Haider and his fellow passengers put their seat belts back on. We then floated towards the spaceport, landing around 6:56 pm to the applause of numerous observers.
A ticket cost $200,000
He “always expected me to fly,” Haider told APA before the flight. The ticket cost him $200,000 (183,604.15 euros at the current exchange rate). For new buyers, the price is now more than double.
According to calculations by the Austrian Space Forum (ÖWF), the company’s CO₂ emissions are roughly comparable to the per capita emissions of a transatlantic flight. “By 2031, annual suborbital flights are expected to increase tenfold to approximately 800 launches, which will then account for approximately one percent of CO₂ emissions from civil flights. In addition to state space programs, a new market is establishing itself in low Earth orbit and private space stations can also be expected in the coming decade,” ÖWF boss Gernot Grömer said in a press release.
Source: Krone
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