To Jointly Manufacture And Market Spaceships For The New
Sub-Orbital Personal Spaceflight Industry
In all the excitement that has been Oshkosh this week, ANN notes
that a new company has been born. Sir Richard Branson and Burt
Rutan have announced their signing of an agreement to form a new
aerospace production company to build a fleet of commercial
sub-orbital spaceships and launch aircraft.
The new company will own the designs of the new SpaceShipTwo
(SS2) and White Knight Two (WK2) launch systems that are now in
development at Scaled Composites. The SS2/WK2 system will use the
'Care-free reentry' and the 'cantilevered-hybrid' rocket motor
technology developed for the Ansari X prize-winning SpaceShipOne
(SS1), and will license that technology from Paul Allen's Mojave
Aerospace company. The Spaceship Company will manufacture the new
launch aircraft, spaceships and support equipment and market them
to spaceline operators, including the launch customer, Virgin
Galactic.
The Spaceship Company will be jointly owned by Virgin and Scaled,
and will contract Scaled for the research, development, testing and
certification of SS2/WK2. Burt Rutan will head up the technical
development team.
Burt Rutan commented: "I am very excited to have agreed the
terms on which we can now move forward to develop the world's-first
commercial, passenger-carrying Spaceships. This will truly herald
an era of personal spaceflight first described by the visionary
science fiction writers of the 1940's and 1950's. Richard and I
share a vision that commercially-viable and safe space tourism will
provide the foundation for the human colonization of space. I am
looking forward, (actually looking way up!) to working together
with Richard on this next exciting phase."
Sir Richard Branson added: "I couldn't be more delighted to
announce the formation of this joint venture at the biggest private
aviation event in the world. Like many millions of people growing
up in the Sixties who witnessed the wonder of man walking on the
moon - I dreamt that one day I too would make that 'one small
step…'! Unfortunately though, over the last three decades,
many people gave up hope - luckily people like Burt Rutan never
did. His vision has allowed people, like me, to dream again. But
even I never dreamed as boy, that one day, I would form, with Burt,
the company which will build the world's first commercial passenger
spacecraft!"
In 2001, Paul Allen contracted Scaled Composites for the research
and development of the SS1 system, to fulfill his vision of flying
the world's first privately-developed, reusable space vehicle. Last
year on June 21st, when Mike Melvill flew SS1 above 100 km
altitude, Mr Allen forever dispelled the myth that manned space
flight was the sole remit of huge Government programs. Then, on
September 27th, Virgin announced the launch of Virgin Galactic, the
world's first commercial space tourism operator and a new era in
space travel was born. Virgin Galactic was a sponsor for the two
successful X-prize flights completed on October 4th. SpaceShipOne,
the historic, record breaking spacecraft, will be installed this
fall in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Milestones
of Flight Gallery in Washington D C.
The launch customer for this new joint venture between Virgin Group
and Scaled Composites will be Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard
Branson's commercial space tourism venture. Virgin Galactic has
placed orders for five SS2's and two WK2's, with options on further
systems, thus securing the exclusive use of the systems for the
initial 18 months of commercial passenger operations.
The Spaceship Company notes that it, 'plans to make spaceflight
affordable for the masses and to demonstrate the commercial
viability of manned space exploration. We are dedicated to reaching
that goal with the first generation of spaceship systems developed
for routine, scheduled flight operations. Those systems will be
environmentally friendly and will include new solutions to optimize
both safety and the passenger experience. We expect that as the
flight hardware matures, and is operated by competing spaceline
companies, many thousands of people will experience the wonder of
leaving the earth's atmosphere each year.' [All pictures,
above, are the property of the Aero-News Network, and ANN
CEO/X-Prize Photographer Jim Campbell]