Two-hour suborbital flights from London to Sydney will be possible within 10 years

New research shows passengers will be able to travel from London to Sydney in less than two hours within a decade by travelling through space.

Medical studies funded by the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority, which oversees air safety, showed the effects of suborbital* space flights on passengers were mostly harmless, The Times newspaper reported.

Suborbital flights blast travellers into space before rapidly descending* to their destination.

The study, published in the journal Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance, said: “Commercial* suborbital space flights are now available for tourism and scientific research, and are ultimately anticipated to mature into extremely fast point-to-point travel — for example, London to Sydney in less than two hours.”

The current flight time from London to Sydney on a normal plane is about 22 hours.

The suborbital flights will not be cheap, however, with seats on Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, or Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin companies costing more than $655,000 each. Experts believe they will eventually become cheaper so everyone can afford it.

The study placed 24 healthy people aged from 32 to 80 into a device to test their reaction to the forces of gravity, which create a heavy sensation on the chest, making it more difficult to breathe, and can reduce the intake of oxygen, affect the rhythm of the heart and lead blood to pool away from the brain.

The research found passengers would not need to be young or super-fit like astronauts, with older people potentially better able to cope with G-forces* because they usually have slightly “stiffer arteries*” which could lessen the pooling of blood away from the brain.

Dr Ryan Anderton, the CAA’s medical lead for space flight, said “physiological* responses are likely to be benign* for most passengers”. The research revealed some passengers may pass out during takeoff and landing, but be fine during the flight.

Virgin Galactic is now planning its first flight to the edge of space in nearly two years. That flight, scheduled for late May, will carry two pilots and a crew of four Virgin Galactic employees. If all goes well, Virgin Galactic expects to begin its first paid passenger flights out of its spaceport in New Mexico in late June.

GLOSSARY

• suborbital: a spaceflight that does not involve putting a vehicle into orbit
• descending: moving downwards
• commercial: paid
• G-forces: the forces of gravity
• arteries: vessels that carry blood away from your heart
• physiological: how the body functions
• benign: harmless

EXTRA READING
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship explodes
Meet the crew headed to the moon

QUICK QUIZ
1. What is a suborbital flight?
2. How long does a normal flight take to fly from Sydney to London?
3. What health issues can the force of gravity cause?
4. How much would a suborbital flight seat cost today?
5. Name the three companies and owners who are working on suborbital flights.

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Suborbital flights
If in the coming years, suborbital flights become accessible to all, cost and health-wise, how could it affect some of the everyday things people do today?
Work with a partner and write a list of things that could or would change by being able to fly around the world in hours:

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Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Geography; Personal and Social; Critical and Creative Thinking
2. Extension
Do you think these suborbital flights would be enjoyable?
Describe some of the things you might see, hear or feel whilst on the flight.
SEE

FEEL

HEAR

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Science; Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
1. Thrill ride?
Read through the article and underline the key points regarding the experience of the suborbital flight. How do you think you would feel being blasted into space and then rapidly descending to the ground? It sounds more like a roller-coaster thrill ride than a comfortable plane flight. Have you ever been on a flight when there has been turbulence before? How did it make you feel?
What about a super-fast roller-coaster?
Create a short paragraph recounting being one of the test passengers on a new commercial suborbital flight from London to Sydney.
Include a little about yourself in the paragraph so we can visualise you on the flight and connect with your experience.
After your flight, review the flight and decide if you will recommend it to others or not and why you came to this decision.