The student newspaper and broadcast of Cedar Park High School

The Wolfpack

The student newspaper and broadcast of Cedar Park High School

The Wolfpack

The student newspaper and broadcast of Cedar Park High School

The Wolfpack

Pictured above is a RealCare baby that is used for the baby care project. Students in the Human Growth and Development class had to take home these babies for a weekend and learn how to care for a baby’s needs. “I liked having a constant companion with me,” Lehman said. “I was never alone for more than two seconds because it was really loud and needed constant attention.” 
Photo by Julia Seiden
Robot Babies On the Loose
Julia Seiden, Reporter • December 8, 2023

Her dark room...

Continue Reading
Tom Blyth’s portrayal of Coriolanus Snow in “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” book-to-movie adaptation has become a staple on social media. The TikTok hashtag “#coriolanussnow” has over one billion views with almost all of the featured videos being a fan-made edit of the actor.
Snow Lands on Top
Alyssa Fox, Reporter • December 6, 2023

Scrolling through...

Continue Reading
A list of 12 Christmas movies you should watch this holiday season!
The 12 Movies of Christmas
Mia Morneault, Reporter • December 6, 2023

It’s the most...

Continue Reading
Crossing the finish line, senior Isabel Conde De Frankenberg secures first place at the Cedar Park invitational on Sept.9. This was Conde De Frankenberg’s first race of the season and she has won this race every year since she was a freshman. “Winning felt good because it’s good to represent your school,” Conde De Frankenberg said. “Being able to run on your own campus is really exciting and I had fun.”
From Start to Finish Line
Mai Cachila, Reporter • December 4, 2023

In the rhythmic...

Continue Reading
AT&T stadium in Arlington is the next big hurdle the Longhorns need to leap over in order to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive.
Is Texas Back?
Jonathan Levinsky, Reporter • December 1, 2023

“Longhorn Nation,...

Continue Reading
Taking a selfie with some of their castmates, including senior Aidan Cox, who plays Buddy the Elf, junior Brooke Ferguson shows off a sign presenting the arrival of “Elf. This year’s musical, “Elf” runs Dec. 1-3 in the CPHS PAC. “[Learning a new script is] always kind of a challenge,” Ferguson said. “You get a new cast and you get your own part. I’ve never worked closely with these people before. It’s a different environment and doing character work with someone new, trying to partner work and scene work is interesting. The script is good and it has a lot of jokes, it’ll be a lot of laughs.” Photo by Brooke Ferguson
Elf on the Stage
Jane Yermakov, Reporter • December 1, 2023

A mix of unprecedented...

Continue Reading

Commercial space travel takes flight

.

Before the 1960’s, space travel was just an idea, a mere fantasy. Then it became reality when there was “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  It was the rare trip only for scientific purposes by professional astronauts. Now there is a whole new kind of space travel; commercial.

Sir Richard Branson, the owner and founder of Virgin Galactic didn’t want the most common dream occupation of every first grader to be crushed. He has recently developed a plan for commercial flights to space. In other words, any average Joe with 200,000 dollars to spare can go into space for 90 minutes, 62 miles above the earth.

The trip requires three days of training sessions prior to the flight. Training involves g-force exercises in a centrifuge and zero-g preparation in a parabolic flight. There is a medical examination, although Virgin Galactic will not prevent a person from going unless they are seriously at risk. Training is held at one of the two launching bases in either California or Florida, to better familiarize the passenger to the area. Educational information about the aircraft and the flight itself are also available for the passenger.

The technology for the endeavor was developed by Burt Rutan.

“Just like when early airplanes were flying in 1910, we didn’t know what the benefits are, but we were doing it because it was fun,” Rutan said on CNN.

Rutan’s company, Scaled Composites, is located in Mojave, California, which may be a launching base in the near future.

To take off, the aircraft has to reach 2,500 miles per hour, three times the speed of sound. The boom from this giant force can be heard for miles while taking off and it is dramatically contrasted to the deafening silence that is heard just moments after reaching zero gravity. When the craft takes off, the ship is connected to the “mother ship,” also called WhiteKnightTwo, built by Scaled Composites. The ship will go up to 50,000 feet above the Earth’s surface. Once it reaches that point, the craft, carrying two pilots and six lucky passengers, will start up the hybrid rocket and detach from the WhiteKnightTwo to continue on and look at Earth from space while experiencing the pleasures of zero gravity for about six minutes.

According Virgin Galactic’s website, the most fascinating part of the trip is the first glance out of, what seems like, the looking glass into the future. This mere realization that there are actually other planets and vast emptiness out there is said to be one of the most emotional experiences of a life time.

Virgin Galactic plans to fly out in about a year or two, making 2010 or 2011 a years that will go down in history as a changing point in technology and space travel in general. It is difficult to see the full affects of space travel on the this generation. Right now the list of people in line for the experience includes 250 people, among them A-list celebrities like Paris Hilton, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, and Madonna, all waiting for the new adventure.         

Virgin Galactic hopes to have commercial flights once a week. Seeing as this has never before been attempted, the chances of it working out are uncertain. If space travel does become successful and eventually relatively “cheap,” who knows what the effects will be? This new trend could be the spark for other innovations, bringing entertainment to a whole new level and raising the bar for technology. If commercial flights become a casual occurrence, the future of society’s dream vacation could forever change, making a weekend at the beach seem boring and a trip to space the classic retreat.

 

 

Story continues below advertisement
Leave a Comment

Comments (0)

Comments on The Wolfpack must be approved before posting.
All The Wolfpack Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Activate Search
The student newspaper and broadcast of Cedar Park High School
Commercial space travel takes flight