Text of Stephen Hawking’s Message at SpaceShipTwo Roll Out
Stephen Hawking
Professor Stephen Hawking
Recorded Message
VSS Unity Roll Out
Mojave Air & Space Port
19 February 2016
I have always dreamt of space flight. But for so many years, I thought it was just that – a dream. Confined to Earth and in a wheelchair, how could I experience the majesty of space except through imagination and my work in theoretical physics. I never thought I would have the opportunity to see our beautiful planet from space or gaze outward into the infinity beyond. This was the domain of astronauts, the lucky few who get to experience the wonder and thrill of space flight.
But I had reckoned without the dream of another, a man with the vision and persistence to open up space flight for ordinary, earth-bound citizens. Richard Branson made it his mission to make space flight a reality for those intrepid enough to venture beyond the boundaries of the Earth’s atmosphere. Even so, I did not foresee that I would be among the early passengers bound for this extraordinary experience. I have had ALS for over fifty years now and while I have no fear of adventure, others do not always take the same view.
Fortunately, I have found a kindred spirit in Richard Branson! In a radio interview, I once confessed that my ultimate ambition was to fly into space but I thought no one would take me. Following this, Richard called me from Necker Island to offer me a seat. I said ‘Yes’ immediately. Since that day, I have never changed my mind. If I am able to go – and if Richard will still take me, I would be very proud to fly on this spaceship.
I have long been an enthusiastic supporter of human spaceflight, and in particular, efforts aimed at making this enormous human achievement more accessible. The first private astronauts will be pioneers. The first flights are expensive. But over time, I hope that space flight will become within the reach of far more of the Earth’s population.
We are entering a new space age and I hope, this will help to create a new unity. Space exploration has already been a great unifier – we seem able to cooperate between nations in space in a way we can only envy on Earth. Taking more and more passengers out into space will enable them and us to look both outwards and back, but with a fresh perspective in both directions. It will help bring new meaning to our place on Earth and to our responsibilities as its stewards, and it will help us to recognize our place and our future in the cosmos – which is where I believe our ultimate destiny lies.
Richard, I am so very happy to be playing a part in this celebration and in particular to be naming such an important world first, assisted I understand, by your granddaughter Eva Deia, who is one today. It is my hope that she and her generation will look back on our efforts and recognise that by opening space, we helped to change the world for good.
Please welcome Virgin Spaceship Unity.
4 responses to “Text of Stephen Hawking’s Message at SpaceShipTwo Roll Out”
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You are strapped into a private jet sized spacecraft that carries a couple of tons of explosives with six other people that all have to exit a small hole in the floor for a door. It is carried by an even larger spindly aircraft full of jet fuel that flies you up to high altitude and then shoots you off to supersonic speeds.
In the event of an emergency, everybody dies. But the participants have signed waivers of liability so its all good.
This brings up a question. Is SpaceShipTwo able to glide properly with a full load of fuel? What happens if there is an emergency on the carrier aircraft and they have to drop it early? Could it make it down safely? Or would it just glide like a brick? Would they have to light off the engine in the dense lower atmosphere to burn off enough fuel to glide to a emergency field? And could it take the thermal stress if they do so?
And of course the big question, have they trained for such an event?
And yes, it has happened in the old rocket plane days. One of the X-2’s was lost in Lake Ontario as a result of an accident during a captive carry killing two crew members.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers…
Other incidents involved the X-1D and X-1A
https://www.nasa.gov/center…
I also recall reading of an incident with the X-15 where it had to be dropped due to a problem with the carrier aircraft but I am unable to find a source. But it was able to vent fuel and land safely since they learned from the earlier incidents and always had a dry lake in range. Keep in mind that the X-15 incorporated into its design and operational procedures all the hard lessons learned from the earlier rocket planes, lessons that costed a number of lives.
Selection criteria are whatever benefits Virgin. Hawking hits the trifecta in terms of PR, branding & marketing.
The door is very small. It would be hard to get out of in an emergency. This thing is really built with any expectation other than everything will go fine. Same approach to training. Assumption the pilot will do exactly what he’s supposed to do when he’s supposed to do it.
There are no safety regulations. However, if there is an accident and Hawking dies because in some fire because he can’t get out the hatch in time, the FAA could step in and formulate a rule that might take effect in a year. Providing it did have the political will to do so.
It reminds me of the old VentureStar. I recall quizzing a Lockheed spokesperson on it once at a spaceport meeting in New Mexico. Turns out it didn’t have any launch abort options. It either made it to orbit or it was a smoking hole in the ground.
The reason was the landing gear wasn’t strong enough to support it when it had a full load of fuel, but that wasn’t necessary as the vehicle basically couldn’t glide if it did have a full load of fuel. Venting the fuel was not an option. If you vented either the LOX or LiquidH2 separately you would mess up the center of gravity causing it to tumble. If you vented them together, you would have a fireball. But the Lockheed spokesperson said they didn’t worry as the aerospike engines it used could never fail….
NASA was probably fortunate they couldn’t make the Hydrogen tank for the X-33, it probably saved cleaning up a big mess somewhere. One of the old WSMR hands at the meeting noted that was one of reasons the USAF had rejected the design in the 1980’s when it was proposed to them by Lockheed.
At least with the Lynx you have escape options which is why the passengers get a pressure suit and chute.