The Indian Panorama

Tag: Richard Branson

  • “Best day ever as Jeff Bezos endshis ride into space on own rocket

    “Best day ever as Jeff Bezos endshis ride into space on own rocket

    DALLAS (TIP): Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, went to space and back Tuesday, July 20 morning on an 11-minute, supersonic joy ride aboard the rocket and capsule system developed by his space company, Blue Origin. Riding alongside the multibillionaire were Bezos’ brother, Mark Bezos; Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pilot and one of the “Mercury 13” women who trained to go to space in the 20th century but never got to fly; and an 18-year old recent high school graduate named Oliver Daemen who was Blue Origin’s first paying customer and whose father, an investor, purchased his ticket. Funk and Daemen became the oldest and youngest people, respectively, ever to travel to space. And this flight marked the first-ever crewed mission for Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital space tourism rocket, which the company plans to use to take wealthy thrill seekers on high-flying joy rides in the months and years to come.

    “Best day ever!” Bezos said when the capsule touched down on the desert floor at the end of the 10-minute flight. Named after America’s first astronaut, Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket soared from remote West Texas on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, a date chosen by Bezos for its historical significance. He held fast to it, even as Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson pushed up his own flight from New Mexico in the race for space tourist dollars and beat him to space by nine days.

    Unlike Branson’s piloted rocket plane, Bezos’ capsule was completely automated and required no official staff on board for the up-and-down flight. Blue Origin reached an altitude of about 66 miles (106 kilometers), more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) higher than Branson’s July 11 ride. The 60-foot (18-meter) booster accelerated to Mach 3 or three times the speed of sound to get the capsule high enough, before separating and landing upright.

    The passengers had several minutes of weightlessness to float around the spacious white capsule. The window-filled capsule landed under parachutes, with Bezos and his guests briefly experiencing nearly six times the force of gravity, or 6 G’s, on the way back.

    Led by Bezos, they climbed out of the capsule after touchdown with wide grins, embracing parents, partners and children, then popped open bottles of sparkling wine, spraying one another.

    haring Bezos’ dream-come-true adventure was Wally Funk, from the Dallas area, one of 13 female pilots who went through the same tests as NASA’s all-male astronaut corps in the early 1960s but never made it into space.

    “I got goose bumps,” said Angel Herrera after the capsule landed. “The hair on the back of my neck stood up, just witnessing history.” Herrera, who lives in El Paso, was one of a few dozen people who watched the launch from inside Van Horn High School, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) away.

    Blue Origin — founded by Bezos in 2000 in Kent, Washington, near Amazon’s Seattle headquarters — hasn’t revealed its price for a ride to space. Two more passenger flights are planned by year’s end, said Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith.

    The recycled rocket and capsule that carried up Tuesday’s passengers were used on the last two space demos, according to company officials.

    Blue Origin is working on a massive rocket, New Glenn, to put payloads and people into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The company also wants to put astronauts back on the moon with its proposed lunar lander Blue Moon; it’s challenging NASA’s sole contract award to SpaceX. (AP)

    (Agencies)

  • Indian American Astronaut Sirisha Bandla set to fly off into space on July 11

    Indian American Astronaut Sirisha Bandla set to fly off into space on July 11

    Third woman of Indian descent to fly into space will be a mission specialist on Virgin Galactic’s ‘Unity 22’ flight.

    WASHINGTON (TIP) July 5:  Indian American Sirisha Bandla is all set to fly off into space on July 11 as a mission specialist on Virgin Galactic’s next test flight of its SpaceShipTwo Unity with Company’s founder, Sir Richard Branson. The “Unity 22” mission, the twenty-second flight test for VSS Unity, will be the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, according to a company announcement.

    While boss Branson will be testing the private astronaut experience, Bandla, Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations at Virgin Galactic, will be evaluating the human-tended research experience.

    Andhra, India born Bandla will be using an experiment from the University of Florida that requires several handheld fixation tubes that will be activated at various points in the flight profile

    “I am so incredibly honored to be a part of the amazing crew of #Unity22, and to be a part of a company whose mission is to make space available to all,” she tweeted.

    Bandla will be the third Indian American woman to fly into space after Karnal, India, born Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.

    Building on the success of the Company’s most recent spaceflight in May, Unity 22 will focus on cabin and customer experience objectives, including:

    – Evaluating the commercial customer cabin with a full crew, including the cabin environment, seat comfort, the weightless experience, and the views of Earth that the spaceship delivers — all to ensure every moment of the astronaut’s journey maximizes the wonder and awe created by space travel
    – Demonstrating the conditions for conducting human-tended research experiments
    – Confirming the training program at Spaceport America supports the spaceflight experience

    For the first time, Virgin Galactic will share a global livestream of the spaceflight. The livestream will be available to watch on Virgin Galactic.com and will be simulcast on the Virgin Galactic Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook channels. It is expected to begin at 7:00 am MDT / 9:00 am EDT on the day of the flight. Branson said: “I truly believe that space belongs to all of us. After more than 16 years of research, engineering, and testing, Virgin Galactic stands at the vanguard of a new commercial space industry, which is set to open space to humankind and change the world for good.” “It’s one thing to have a dream of making space more accessible to all; it’s another for an incredible team to collectively turn that dream into reality,” he said.

    “As part of a remarkable crew of mission specialists, I’m honored to help validate the journey our future astronauts will undertake and ensure we deliver the unique customer experience people expect from Virgin.”

    Previously, Bandla served as the Associate Director for the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, an industry association of commercial spaceflight companies.

    At CSF, Bandla works on various policies with the aim to promote the commercial space industry and make commercial spaceflight a reality. Before CSF, she worked as an aerospace engineer designing components for advanced aircraft at L-3 Communications in Greenville, Texas.

    She has a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical/astronautical engineering from Purdue and holds a Masters of Business Administration from George Washington University.

    Bandla currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Astronautical Society, Future Space Leaders Foundation, and is a member of the Young Professional Advisory Council at Purdue University. Bandla also helps to coordinate the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program.

    Meanwhile, Bandla’s grandparents back in Andhra Pradesh are flooded with phone calls and messages showering their blessings and wishing her the best, according to the Indian Express.

    Bandla Ragaiah, her paternal grandfather based in Guntur, says it was at the age of four years that Sirisha, who was always curious about flying and had her eyes set on the skies, took to her first adventure.

    “At the age of four, she travelled alone to the US where her parents and older sister lived,” the 83-year-old who worked as a principal scientist and professor at state-run Acharya NG Ranga Agriculture University told Indianexpress.com over the phone.

    “Though the person who accompanied her was known to us, he was a stranger to her. She was not scared to fly alone. She was excited,” he said.

    Ragaiah is happy and proud that his granddaughter is set to achieve her dreams. He recalls her as a child who was decisive in her thoughts and determined to achieve them.

    “We don’t know how she got interested in aircraft, stars and skies. It has been in her since childhood. Whatever she has achieved today is on her own accord and her parents gave her full freedom to pursue her dream. She has proved her excellence and rose to the occasion,”
    Ragaiah was quoted as saying.

    Her maternal grandfather, Venkat Narasiah, who retired as a Chemistry professor and lives at Tenali in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, echoed similar views.

    He recalled that Bandla used to visit NASA during the family’s stay in Houston. “She was so interested in flying an aircraft that even after she could not make it to NASA due to a condition in her eyesight, she pursued higher education in the same field. For those like her, she has done videos on YouTube — ‘lessons from Bandla Sirisha’ on how to get into the Space industry,” Narasiah told Indianexpress.com.

    Both her grandparents agree that Sirisha was a fearless and active child. “When I used to come home late at night, I used to discourage her from stepping out. But she would always tell me not to worry and that she could take care of herself,” said Ragaiah.

    “Even during a power cut when other children of her age would be scared of the pitch darkness around, she was not one of them,” Narsiah added.