A Look Inside Virgin Galactic's Flight Training

Don’t have the cash? A bit of luck—and a very generous friend—might help you out. Which brings us back to Wilson da Silva. Soon after hearing about Virgin Galactic’s proposed flight, millionaire Alan Finkel, founder of Axon Instruments and financier of Cosmos, called da Silva asking his opinion of the project. Da Silva agreed it sounded like an interesting prospect, which prompted Finkel to offer a free ticket to join him in space. Five weeks later, da Silva received a letter from Sir Richard Branson naming the first 100 passengers, and was shocked to see his own name listed.

“I had about as much expectation of going into space as being Secretary General of the U.N.—both were theoretically possible, but never going to happen,” said da Silva.

NASTAR’s STS-400: One of the most advanced centrifuges, the STS-400 provides the same physiological effects of a trip on SpaceShipTwo.

Faking a Flight

Turns out it is going to happen (the space travel, that is). In late October, da Silva joined other members of the lucky first 100 to fly in flight simulation training sessions in NASTAR Center, outside of Philadelphia, where he underwent vigorous training that gave him an idea of what was in store for him on his flight.

The center’s two-day Space Flight Training Program, includes academic classes that train the passengers to deal with the intense G forces experienced in flight, and six flight simulations in NASTAR’s STS-400, a centrifuge that provides the same physiological effects of a trip on SpaceShipTwo.

Passengers of SpaceShipTwo will experience G forces in both the x (against the chest) and z (from the top of the head) directions. G is the gravitational constant, and on earth we experience it as our body weight. In space, these passengers can expect to experience three and a half Gs on their trip up, and six Gs on reentry—the equivalent of having, respectively, three and a half or six times your body weight pressing down on you. The STS-400 is one of the only centrifuges in the world capable of moving its cabin in all directions, so that passengers can experience G forces in each direction.