Virgin Galactic Reveals SpaceShipTwo Cabin Interior
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| Photo Virgin Galatic |
Virgin Galactic Holdings, the vertically integrated aerospace and space travel company revealed the cabin interior of its first SpaceShipTwo vehicle, VSS Unity in a virtual event streamed live on YouTube yesterday.
Aspiring astronauts and space enthusiasts around the world, now have the opportunity to explore the Virgin Galactic cabin design and spaceflight experience through an augmented reality enabled mobile app, which launches after the live event, and is available to download for free at both the App Store and Play Store.
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| Photo Virgin Galatic |
One Virgin Galactic, in collaboration with London design agency, Seymourpowell, has striven to remain faithful to the Virgin tradition of developing an elegant but progressive, experience-focused concept design for the cabin of its spaceship.
While it has been created to integrate seamlessly with every other aspect of the Virgin Galactic astronaut journey – the cabin is also the design centrepiece; providing safety without distraction, quietly absorbing periods of sensory intensity and offering each astronaut a level of intimacy required for personal discovery and transformation.
Cabin design driven by astronaut experience:
Individually sized, reclining seats for G-force management and float zone volume;
Automated mood lighting harmonizes with each flight phase;
Personal seat back screens connect astronauts to live flight data;
Cabin architecture facilitates effortless movement in weightlessness;
16 cameras provide high definition footage and stills;
12 cabin windows for astronauts to gaze at Earth from;
Largest mirror in a spaceship cabin – mirror reflects the real-time astronaut experience.
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Individually sized seats, created using the highest-grade aluminium and carbon-fiber manufacturing techniques, reinforce this sense. The importance of astronaut comfort to optimize performance is accentuated by the use of engineered foam and technical fabrics. Virgin Galactic’s partner Under Armour developed the astronaut spacesuits and also the fabric technology featured in the cabin seats. Harnessing insights from more than two decades of maximizing human performance, Under Armour created a 3D knit featuring constructions that map breathability and function into the fabric encasing each cabin seat to provide comfort and mobility during spaceflight.
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| Photo Virgin Galatic |
Virgin Galactic’s current community of 600 Future Astronauts has always been clear that having photos and videos of their spaceflight experience to share, is of paramount importance. The output from 16 cabin cameras, plus those in the cockpit and mounted externally, will generate high definition output to provide everything from the first Instagram posts, to a beautifully edited and historically significant personal movie.
Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic said: "In just my second week as Virgin Galactic’s CEO, it is with great pride that I can lead our talented teams in revealing this latest milestone in our journey to space. The spaceship cabin interior is in many ways the design centrepiece of the astronaut journey and what has been created will both facilitate and elevate a uniquely profound and transformational journey for the thousands who will fly."
Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group said: "When we created Virgin Galactic, we started with what we believed would be an optimal customer experience and then built the spaceship around it. We will continue with that ethos as we expand our fleet, build our operations and underpin Virgin Galactic’s position as the Spaceline for Earth. This cabin has been designed specifically to allow thousands of people like you and me to achieve the dream of spaceflight safely – and that is incredibly exciting."
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