Today has been a super exciting step forward in my journey to space travel, as Virgin Galactic unveiled SpaceShipTwo, and named her VSS Unity.
I was up early watching online via Twitter, and while there is still a lot of work and testing to be done before the new spaceship takes to the skies, let alone is ready to carry passengers, the idea that I am actually going to travel to space is really starting to get tangible.
I’m a long way from alone in my excitement, there are already more future astronauts signed up to experience space travel with Virgin Galactic than humans who have ever been to space (that number is 536, and in press conferences today Sir Richard Branson was talking 700+ existing customers) which is an incredible thought.
And while there are still many more steps before any of us take off in VSS Unity to experience the wonder of space travel for ourselves, the Future Astronaut program continues to deliver lots of exciting opportunities in the meantime. I’m planning to do a Zero G flight in the US in the next couple of months, and later on this year I’m hoping to travel to the Mojave desert to visit Spaceport America and see SpaceShipTwo and its carrier craft WhiteKnightTwo up close and meet more of the wonderful team who are bringing this project to life.
