spaceshiptwo

Virgin Galactic Completes Successful Maiden Voyage

Filed under: Wings

Public space travel took another leap forward last week when Virgin Galactic made its maiden voyage in the skies over the Mojave Desert in California. The test flight consisted of carrier plane WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) taking flight for the first time while carrying SpaceShipTwo (SS2), the vessel that will eventually be the one to take passengers out to space. The plan is for WK2 to carry SS2 up to a high altitude before dropping it, at which point the hybrid rocket motor will fire and SS2 will carry passengers the rest of the way out to space on its own.

During this first test flight WK2 flew with SS2 for about 3 hours, without incident or hiccup. There are many more test flights to be completed (test hops, drop flights, and actual trips to space) before passengers will be allowed to take tourism flights out of Spaceport America in New Mexico. The project is running longer and is costing more than originally anticipated, but the hope is that SS2 will undergo its first powered test by the end of this year and that the project could be opened to passengers as soon as late 2011 or early 2012.

Via Dvice

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Tags: space, space flight, space tourism, space travel, SpaceFlight, spaceshiptwo, SpaceTourism, SpaceTravel, virgin galactic, VirginGalactic

Virgin Galactic Reveals Spaceship Designs

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

Sir Richard Branson is so excited about the design for the Virgin Galactic spaceship designs he's willing to wear them. Yesterday, Branson recently showed off the design of Virgin Galactic's new space launch system based on the X Prize-winning technology of SpaceShipOne. The White Knight Two carrier aircraft is being built at Scaled Composites in the Mojave Desert and should begin flight testing this summer. The mothership is the world's largest, all carbon composite aircraft and is powered by four Pratt and Whitney PW308A engines to launch SpaceShipTwo and its eight astronauts into sub-orbital space flight. SpaceShipTwo is now 60% complete. It's good news for those eager for space travel, already 80 of SpaceShipTwo's first passengers have gone through medical assessment and preliminary training. Thousands more have indicated their eagerness to board experience space flight once Virgin Galactic is operational.

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Tags: sir richard branson, SirRichardBranson, space tourism, space travel, spaceshiptwo, virgin galactic