Before school was out for the summer, Cleveland students heard about spaceship travel from someone who once roamed the same school hallways as they do and is now a go-to expert on space travel.

On Tuesday, May 9, Jonathan Ritchie visited with Cleveland Schools fifth grade and middle school students. Ritchie is Chief Engineer of the Virgin Galactic SpaceshipTWO project.

Ritchie, son of retired educators Jack and Dadreon Ritchie, was raised in Cleveland, graduating from Cleveland High School. He attended Oklahoma State University where he obtained his degree in aerospace and mechanical engineering.

In 2011 Ritchie moved to Mojave, Calif. with his family to work at The Spaceship Company owned by Richard Branson, of Virgin Galactic. The companys aim is to not only provide commercial space tourism to regular people, but to be the first to do so. There is a new space race going on, Ritchie explained.

He pointed out that only 550 people have EVER been to space! The touristic experience that The Spaceship Company is striving to offer is a two-hour round-trip from Spaceport America in Mojave, Calif. The space ship will carry two pilots and six passengers. The WhiteKnight airplane also has two pilots onboard. It brings the space ship to 50,000 feet where the SpaceshipTwo and WhiteKnight will separate. Then the rocket engine ignites, burning for 60 seconds, bringing SpaceshipTwo into space at 360,000 ft. The Spaceship Two is fueled by burning rubber and nitrous oxide (laughing gas) lots of it! The passengers would be in space for five minutes and get to unbuckle their seat belts and experience weightlessness. To fully enjoy this experience passengers must go through three days of training before embarking on the two hour flight. The pilots are all specifically trained experimental test pilots. According to plan, Spaceship Two and WhiteKnight would both land separately back at Spaceport.

The new space race is currently running neck-to-neck. Ritchies team has three successful test flights under their belts and working with the best of the best in the industry. Ritchie is confident commercial space travel will be a reality very soon. The whole experience will cost space tourists $250,000 and there are already over 700 people on a waiting list.

Passengers must be 18 years old for legal consent. Height restrictions are between 5 ft. to 6.4 ft. and passengers most weigh less than 260 pounds.

Ritchie concluded by saying, I hope you have a great summer and never lose your curiosity and imagination. Imagination and desire joined with action are what make dreams come true.

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Cleveland Grad Engineering Commercial Space Travel - Cleveland American