Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipTwo

RobGoldsmith writes to tell us that Virgin Galactic has unveiled their latest take on manned space travel for the immediate future: SpaceShipTwo. The craft comes complete with matching mothership, WhiteKnightTwo, and will be officially unveiled today in the Mojave Desert just after dark. "Subject to certain US regulatory requirements that will guide the unveiling, SS2 will be attached to her WK2 mothership which was last year unveiled and named EVE after Sir Richard Branson's mother. In the future, WK2 will carry SS2 to above 50,000 feet (16 kilometers) before the spaceship is dropped and fires her rocket motor to launch into space from that altitude. In honor of a long tradition of using the word Enterprise in the naming of Royal Navy, US Navy, NASA vehicles and even science fiction spacecraft, Governor Schwarzenegger of California and Governor Richardson of New Mexico will today christen SS2 with the name Virgin Space Ship (VSS) ENTERPRISE. This represents not only an acknowledgment to that name’s honorable past but also looks to the future of the role of private enterprise in the development of the exploration, industrialization and human habitation of space."

Comments

Whodathunk

[Saint Stephen]

That the guy that I guess history will say started commercial space flight for real, owned a company that used to sell cassettes and records.

Re:Whodathunk

[starglider29a]

What did Henry Ford do before he changed everything?

Re:Whodathunk

[JWSmythe]

    Well...

    * Hobbyist watch repairs as a teenager.
    * Machinist in Detroit.
    * Steam engine repairs for Westinghouse.
    * Engineer at Edison Illuminating Company (promoted to chief engineer)

    Kinda sounds like the type of guy who could build a car. :) Not that I like Fords though, I prefer GM vehicles. :)

Re:Whodathunk

[FMZ]

You have obviously never listened to Pink Floyd after smoking marijuana.

Re:Whodathunk

[Idiomatick]

It'll probably make it 130km in the air so it isn't a normal plane ride... (Which do like 12k). It advances different parts of it. Just because it isn't about to do a moon landing doesn't mean it isn't valuable.

They seem to have a fairly elegant launch system and a VERY elegant landing system. I'm sure they have other advances as well.

Now of course the patent system will kill any chances of this being used. And people are often to prideful to not reinvent the wheel half the time anyways. (It'd be neat to see the US license some russian tech rather than spend billions re-figuring shit out)

Re:Whodathunk

[jollyreaper]

Not really. It's just a glorified vomit comet with some spectacular views. The real pioneers in commercial space flight are companies like Space-X who are very close to having launch capacity capable of being man-rated for orbital flight! We probably should cancel the Aries launch system and instead partner with Space-X.

In the meantime, Virgin Galactic or whatever it is called is just a glorified thrill ride that does nothing to advance real commercial space flight.

NASA didn't build the Saturn V as the very first project out the gate. While they had no mission to turn a profit on the venture, they broke the development up into tiny steps to make sure nothing went wrong. Virgin Galactic has to turn a profit. The first system was proof of concept. The second system here is about making money. You do realize that there will be a SpaceShipThree, Four, Five, etc, so long as the business remains profitable?

This is not a zero-sum game. Space-X can compete building unmanned rockets. They're getting pretty good at it. Rutan and crew can concentrate on putting the people up there. SpaceShipOne was not a vomit comet, it was like the Redstone suborbital launch. SpaceShipTwo is the same with paying passengers. Three or Four will probably make the step of getting into a proper orbit.

It's ugly but it's the future of space exploration

[Xeoz]

As much as I love NASA and the space program, it is time to private companies to start building an industry out of it. Only when private companies find profits in space will we see real progress. Unfortunately, no one has thought of a way to make money off of it yet. Other than insanely rich tourists.

That's cool, but...

[starglider29a]

The display on NCC-1701x that shows several ships and a Space Shuttle prototype is now inaccurate... unless Gary Seven sabotages the Virgin craft... hmmm....

Re:Enterprise, sure!

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Space...The final frontier to make money. These are the Voyages of the VSS Enterprise...it's 30-minute a week mission to make orbital space as much of a tourist destination as the Carribean...

Re:It's ugly but it's the future of space explorat

[castironpigeon]

I doubt that true exploration will ever be done privately. There's no money to be made that way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bend_Gold_Rush
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayoosh_Gold_Rush

...etc.

Re:Enterprise, sure!

[JoshuaZ]

It is worse than that. The shuttle Enterprise was explicitly named with the USS Enteprise as a spaceship in mind. To confuse matters even more, there have now been official references in Star Trek books and other material to the shuttle Enteprise as the first spaceship of that name. So in the Star Trek universe, the Enterprise shuttle existed but wasn't named after the fictional Enterprise (because Star Trek wasn't a television show in the Star Trek universe). Have a headache yet?

Re:First Ship!

[sopssa]

You're right, Virgin Space Ship does indeed make the 40 year old geeky technicians sound bad.

Oh my

[Nefarious Wheel]

Gods that's a beautiful spaceship. I will toast their success with fine wine.

This is exactly the sort of thing that got me interested in science as a young boy. Granted that was in the day of Von Braun and Willey Ley and Chesley Bonestell (yes I am that old) but the Universe wrote large in my imagination back then, and I wanted something more than cars that tried to look like airplanes. I wanted the stars. There is nothing as hungry as the imagination of the young.

I was fortunate to work for NASA for a short while in my career, writing software for the Pioneer spacecraft. I've gone on a bit since then, still in the IT industry and laid a lot of networks. But nothing compares with having been lucky enough to work on something that fired my imagination as a boy.

Did I mention that's a beautiful spaceship? If form follows function, then something with that form has to be awfully functional.

There's our Orient Express, people. It's a short step from tourists to passengers.

I salute you, Sir Richard.

Parent is mis-informative

[LenE]

WK2 is not fly-by-wire. In fact there is no hydraulic boost, even. Its control surfaces are all human powered by long composite cables.

The WK2 is also fully aerobatic, so it will see high loadings. It was designed for them.

Disclaimer - I work at Scaled Composites, and I am not at liberty to discuss any proprietary information. The information provided above is publicly acknowledged and available from other sources.

-- Len