Virgin Galactic to Help Save The Planet

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a US government body that carries out all kinds of tests on the seas and the atmosphere.

It is comparatively easy to make these experiments happen on the world’s oceans; all you need to do is hire some ships.

When it comes to snooping around in the high atmosphere then things are not so easy.

There are not so many spacecraft available for the job, that’s why the organisation has turned to Virgin Galactic, the new space tourism company owned by all round nice guy Richard Branson.

Virgin has agreed to collaborate with the NOAA, using its spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, to assist in experiments to find out more about the edges of our world, the parts that separate us from the vacuum of space, the stratosphere, mesosphere, and lower thermosphere.

The problem that NOAA has faced is that hardly any craft hang around in this relatively unknown region, planes fly much lower and spacecraft pass right though on the way into space.

Virgin’s craft are designed to fly in the upper atmosphere where the air is very thin and resistance is minimal.

Branson’s flights will carry some scientific toys onboard so that they can take measurements that will help the NOAA to make observations about global climate change.

The flights will top out at around 50,000 feet. The NOAA’s current craft can only manage half that altitude.

The first test flights are expected to launch within just a few weeks and the experiments are slated to last for around a year and a half and will be the backbone of a study in climate modeling.

The experiments will first look into how much greenhouse gas is found at those heights.

The big Virgin himself, Richard Branson, says that he believes there is no greater or more pressing challenge than climate change, and it is fitting that the first science to be conducted on the new vehicles will help find effective ways of dealing with it.

Virgin says that this will not be the last collaboration with scientific institutions around the world.