Virgin's Branson unveils commercial spaceship model (SpaceShipTwo)

LA Times ^ | 1/23/08 | reuters

[BurbankKarl]

Entrepreneur Richard Branson today unveiled a model of the spaceship he hopes will be the first to take paying passengers into space on a regular basis next year.

Branson, whose Virgin Galactic is one of several commercial enterprises vying to offer the ultimate in sightseeing, said his SpaceShipTwo will start test flights later this year.

Two thousand eight is going to be the year of the spaceship. We're excited about this, and everything it will do," said Branson at a media event at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan."

Virgin Galactic, part of Branson's airline, vacation and retail company Virgin Group, has more than 200 people signed up and $30 million in deposits for the rides, which cost about $200,000 per person.

The company has signed up 150 passengers, including physicist Stephen Hawking, former soap star Victoria Principal and designer Philippe Starck.

The space trips, from a launching pad to be built in New Mexico, are expected to take about two and a half hours, with about five minutes of weightlessness.

[BurbankKarl]

Virgin Galactic herald's 'The Year of the Spaceship with the unveiling of the designs of SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo. Virgin Galactic today unveiled the design of its new, environmentally benign, space launch system based on the X Prize winning technology of SpaceShipOne, which successfully flew into space for the third time in October 2004 and won the $10m Ansari X Prize. The construction of the White Knight Two (WK2) mothership, or carrier aircraft, is now very close to completion at Scaled Composites in Mojave, CA and is expected to begin flight testing in the summer of 2008. It is the world’s largest, all carbon composite aircraft; it has a unique high altitude lift capacity, capable of launching SpaceShipTwo and its eight astronauts into sub-orbital space flight. The WK2 mothership is powered by four Pratt and Whitney PW308A engines which are amongst the most powerful, economic and efficient engines available. The WK2 mothership has also been designed to be capable of lifting other payload and launching it into space. Whilst the two vehicles comprising the space launch system have been under construction, Virgin Galactic’s cadre of future astronauts has continued to grow strongly to well in excess of 200 individuals with around 85,000 registrations of interest to fly. Astronaut orientation for spaceflight is progressing well and already 80 of SpaceShipTwo’s first passengers have been through medical assessment and centrifuge training at the NASTAR facility in Philadelphia. Commenting on the unveiling, Burt Rutan, CEO of Scaled Composites, said: “Virgin Galactic produced a demanding output specification for the world’s first private human and payload space launch system. This required us to produce a safe but flexible design capable of multiple applications in new market sectors. I am confident that these vehicles, now in an advanced stage of construction, will achieve just that. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the whole team at Scaled Composites. “Looking up ��" way up!” is an expression we have shared since the X Prize began and now we are all excited that this year the dream will start to become a very tangible reality for everyone involved.” Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Galactic, added: “The designs of both the mothership and the new spaceship are absolutely beautiful and surpass any expectations for the future of commercial spaceflight that we had when first registering the name Virgin Galactic in 1999. Burt and his team have done a fantastic job and I am also delighted with the wonderful vision that Foster and Partners, working with URS, have shown in the final designs for Spaceport America in New Mexico. Finally, we are all very excited about the prospect of being able to develop a bio-fuel solution for the space launch system and we are looking forward to working with Pratt and Whitney and Virgin Fuels to trial an appropriate bio mix for the PW308A engines that will be powering our new carrier aircraft.” Virgin Galactic will make further announcements regarding the progress of the launch system, development of its markets, the test flying program and start of commercial operations at Spaceport America in due course.

[RightWhale]

2nd thread and no mention of (the accident).

[tet68]

“Folks, we’ll be leaving for space shortly, just as soon as
McDonalds arrives with the rest of our bio-fuel.

[ikka]

God Bless them and may they make a huge amount of money. And may this pave the way for better moon travel and faster Earth travel.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

What accident?

[RightWhale]

Shh. Secret.

[BurbankKarl]

The big one in Mojave.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

Ooookaaay. Got it. Whatever.

[BurbankKarl]

This accident

http://www.freerepublic.info/focus/f-news/1956000/posts

I wasnt aware that Mojave lost its space port license.

[NonZeroSum]

I wasn't aware that Mojave lost its space port license.

It hasn't.

[RightWhale]

Wow! That didn’t make the news.

[CougarGA7]

Looks like Mos Cruses is going to open up for business. Not surprising concidering we already have one of the Huts living here.

[diogenes ghost]

"Wow! That didn't make the news."

Wow! It sure did, I only watch fox news, they had it, complete with moving pictures and everything!

[RightWhale]

Not that. The spaceport license.

[MaxMax]

Moving pictures? Yea right, like we’ve never heard that one before.

[Moonman62]

That’s very sharp looking. It looks like a real shuttle now.

[BurbankKarl]

so what were the six pages of amendments to the current license?

[cabojoe]

There is a nice gallery of pictures here.

[NonZeroSum]

so what were the six pages of amendments to the current license?

They were amendments. Why do think that amending a license is equivalent to losing it? Did we lose the Constitution when we added the Bill of Rights? ;-)