An Interactive 3D Visualization of Photographs Taken From the International Space Station. Welcome to the SGAC. Virgin Galactic Doesn't Just Benefit the Rich—It's Good for Science. A man watches as WhiteKnightTwo, carrying SpaceShipTwo, takes flight over Spaceport America, on October 17, 2011. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images Last week’s crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, which killed one test pilot and injured another, brought criticism that the company is merely a provider of space safaris for the rich—one that’s not worth dying for.
Yes, Virgin Galactic caters to the wealthy who can afford its $250,000 parabolic joyrides, if and when they finally take flight. Virgin doesn’t offer a lot of weightless time—Katy Perry and Ashton Kutcher will get just four minutes to float around the cabin before they have to find their way back to their seats. Will Pomerantz, vice president for special projects at Virgin Galactic, is a planetary science researcher by training. Research in outer space isn’t just about making life beyond Earth more feasible: It can directly impact our gravity-ridden lives. Courtesy Virgin Galactic The first is LauncherOne. PLANETARY [Trailer] OVERVIEW. Out Of This World: The Mysterious Mental Side Effects Of Traveling Into Space. At first they thought it was asthma. The fighter squadron's 37-year-old commander suddenly started refusing to fly at high altitudes because of mysterious breathing problems. He also struggled to control feelings of wrath toward his coworkers, and that made him hyperventilate.
It was only later that the commander would tell a Navy psychologist what really triggered him: That while flying at the edge of the troposphere, “a frightening feeling of detachment” set in. There, in the halo of thin silence surrounding the earth in 1956, he didn’t trust his own mind not to self-destruct. The atmosphere gets threadbare above 45,000 feet. Strange things have happened to the human mind at those heights.
Not many pilots wanted to tell shrinks about break-off. A few pilots were willing to take that risk. The break-off phenomenon soon became a topic of discussion for any national power interested in hurtling their brawny young men beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Then, suddenly, break-off went away. Dr.