Posted on 07/30/2007 4:39:44 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Virgin Galactic's leadership pushed back the flight test and in-service dates for the space tourism company's suborbital launch system, just before the SpaceShipTwo (SS2)-related test explosion on 26 July that killed and injured employees of the vehicle's developer Scaled Composites.
Speaking at the EAA AirVenture event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on 24 July Virgin Galactic chief operating officer Alex Tai announced a new in-service date of "end of 2009, beginning of 2010". Since 2004 the start date has steadily slipped from early 2007, to 2008, to May 2009, and now late 2009 or 2010.
At the Farnborough air show last year Virgin Galactic's president Will Whitehorn told Flight that July or August 2007 was the roll-out date for SS2's carrier aircraft White Knight II (WK2) followed by SS2 in the fourth quarter.
In space, no one can hear you ping...
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