First Solo: Foundation Flight

Everyone who has ever captained a Halcyon hull started somewhere, and for most Lumen graduates that somewhere is the left-hand seat of a Sparrow Trainer above Tasman Field. First Solo: Foundation Flight is our entry-level programme for people with no previous flying experience at all. You do not need a technical degree, only a clean aeromedical certificate, reasonable maths and the patience to learn a discipline that rewards precision over bravado.

The course runs for 14 weeks. The first month is classroom-heavy: orbital mechanics, life-support systems, radio procedure, traffic rules around Earth and Luna, and the human factors that cause most accidents. From week three you start working in the simulator hall, and by graduation you will have logged 60 hours in full-motion and fixed-base simulators. Real flying begins in week five. Over the following ten weeks each student completes 45 flight hours in the Sparrow, Halcyon's 11-metre, single-pilot training craft, with an instructor in the second seat until the day you fly alone.

That day is the heart of the course. Your first solo is a short methalox burn from the Tasman pad to low Earth orbit and back, and every cohort celebrates it with the traditional Lumen ritual of a bucket of cold water. Later sorties stretch to cislunar space, with a final navigation exercise that takes you to a rendezvous point off L5 Lagrange Station and home again.

Each intake of 16 students is supported by four flight instructors, giving a ratio of four learners per tutor in the air. Tuition is 48,000 credits, covering simulator time, fuel, aeromedical checks and the licence fee. The next intake starts on 10 November 2187. Over the last five years, 91 per cent of entrants have passed the final check ride first time and walked away with the Private Spaceflight Licence, the prerequisite for every other course in our catalogue.