Posted on 01/29/2008 10:44:28 AM PST by Freeport
Virgin Galactic expects Scaled Composites to roll out its SpaceShipTwo (SS2) carrier aircraft White Knight II (WK2) in early May for ground tests.
Construction of the four-engine, twin-fuselage prototype is 80% complete at Scaled's Mojave, California facility, said Virgin Galactic at the New York unveiling of SS2 and WK2 on 23 January.
The WK2 will have an all-carbonfibre airframe with a 42.7m (140ft) wingspan, 23.7m overall length and a tail height of 4.5m. Powered by four Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308 turbofans, the aircraft will have a range, carrying its SS2 payload, of more than 4,200km (2,270nm).
"First flight will be during the summer", and will follow a period of ground-testing, says the space tourism company's commercial director Stephen Attenborough.
Scaled's engineers had been hoping to make WK2 ready to fly at the AirVenture show in Oshkosh in July, but that is now "unlikely", says Attenborough.
Because the WK2's two fuselages will share a common cabin design with the SS2 suborbital vehicle, the carrier aircraft will be used for pilot and passenger training for the spaceship's flights.
Are you thinking sabotage of some sort?
No. Just an unaccounted for ignition source.
Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites are thinking outside the box on space travel. NASA is still locked into 1980’s rocket technology and due to underfunding is only doing unmanned planet probes for the next few years. NASA would need several billion $ to make a vehicle do what Virgin/Scaled is doing for a few million $. We eagerly await their bid to open space to non government/military travel.
You are too kind... I'd say 1970's at best and 1960's at worst.
Burt's got it right... So does Bigalow...
That is a really beautiful picture. My new wallpaper for this week. *aerospace junkie*
Why? If those folks want to spend their money for 5 minutes of weightlessness and the joy of seeing the earth from 60 miles up what’s it to you? The airlines were preceded by the barnstormers giving folks rides in Jenny’s for 5 bucks.
You are ignoring the fact that these early adopters subsidise future research, and help the participating companies advance their capabilities. Ultimately, it will benefit the development of a cheap, safe manned orbital transfer vehicle. This is how capitalism works!
NASA has a serious vibration problem with their follow on manned ship (Orion I think the name is). They will certainly be able to solve the problem but they’re concerned enough about it to say it’s a show stopper if they can’t fix it.
If Wikipedia is to be believed, White Knight 2 has a service ceiling of 60,000 feet and a payload capacity of 30 tons, making it big enough to carry a Pegasus XL (23 tons). Orbital Sciences launches the Pegasus from 40,000 feet. I bet they would love to be 4 miles closer to space when they launch a Pegasus payload.
Does anyone know if Scaled Composites plans to sell White Knight 2s to anyone other than Virgin Galactic for small payload launch and high altitude testing? It seems like a natural.
Repeal the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty and open the Land Office to recording of mining and entry claims. Then we can talk.
An ongoing investigation into a fatal explosion last summer has delayed rocket engine development for the passenger spacecraft SpaceShipTwo, the vehicle’s lead designer has said.
Aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan, who is building the suborbital SpaceShipTwo with his Mojave, Calif.-based company Scaled Composites, said the firm must first determine the cause of the July 26 blast that killed three Scaled workers and injured three others before completing the spacecraft’s rocket engine.
“No question, we are having delays in development of the rocket engine,” Rutan said after unveiling designs for SpaceShipTwo and its WhiteKnightTwo mothership in New York City on Jan. 23. “We just don’t know how long those delays will be yet.”
http://www.space.com/news/080128-ss2-engine-scaled-explosion.html
The purpose should be right up your ally. If this succeeds, it means private corporations succeeded where the government failed, actually figured out how to make taking people into space profitable. Once it's profitable, all hell will break loose with good old competition and you'll see advances in space technology, and lowering of the prices, like never before existed.
BTW, SpaceShip 3, the next generation, is planned to be orbital, and they have visions of space hotels.
Curious tagline.
Is it intentional or a Freudian typo?
Scaled Composites is now owned by Northrop Grumman. I'm sure they'd sell. OTOH, I'm sure Branson wouldn't mind charging companies for a 50,000 foot vehicle release -- Virgin Galactic Launch Services.
Ping
I took it from a fellow freeper’s post about how to create a tagline. I thought it was pretty funny so I appropriated it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.