Flight Testing For Commercial Tourist Spacecraft Could Begin
Next Year
Virgin Founder, Sir Richard Branson
and SpaceshipOne (SS1) designer, Burt Rutan, are set to reveal SS2
to the public for the first time since construction of the
world’s first manned commercial spaceship began in 2007 late
Monday. SS2 has been designed to take many thousands of private
astronauts into space after test programming and all required U.S.
government licensing has been completed.
The unveiling represents another major milestone in Virgin
Galactic’s quest to develop the World’s first
commercial space line providing private sector access to space
using an environmentally benign launch system for people, payload
and science. The spaceship draws on the experience developed during
the successful flights of SS1 in 2004, which won the Ansari X-Prize
for completing the world’s first manned private space
flights. The SS2 design will be refined and completed during an
extensive test flying program to commence shortly, and it will be
an entirely new vehicle capable of carrying up to 6 passenger
astronauts and up to 2 pilot astronauts into space on a sub-orbital
flight.
Sir Richard Branson, Burt Rutan With SS2
Model Photo Credit Virgin Galactic
The unveil itself will take place at Mojave Air and Spaceport as
darkness falls on the famous aviation and spaceflight location.
Subject to certain U.S. regulatory requirements that will guide the
unveiling, SS2 will be attached to her WK2 mothership which was
last year unveiled and named EVE after Branson’s mother. In
the future, WK2 will carry SS2 to above 50,000 feet before the
spaceship is dropped and fires her rocket motor to launch into
space from that altitude. In honour 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 acknowledgement 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.
Branson says the emergence of new commercial space companies
like Virgin Galactic will be an engine for employment, growth and
the creation of a new technology and science base in the United
States. Recent research has indicated that 12,500 jobs have already
been created by the new space companies; the Virgin Galactic
project alone is creating significant opportunities for employment
in both the company itself and with suppliers in both California
and New Mexico. Approximately 600 people are now working on
activities relating to the project and it is estimated that this
figure will rise to over 1,100 jobs during the peak of the
construction phase at the space port and through the introduction
of the commercial space vehicles into regular astronaut
service.
Eve At Oshkosh 2009
Both WK2 and SS2 represent state of the art environmentally
sensitive industrial development in their use of carbon composite
materials technology, which has now been identified as a key future
contributor to the increasingly urgent requirement by the
commercial aviation sector for dramatically more fuel efficient
aircraft. WK2 is powered by four Pratt and Whitney PW308A engines,
which are amongst the most powerful. economic and efficient
commercial jet engines available making it a mould breaker in
carbon efficiency. SS2 will be powered by a unique hybrid rocket
motor, which is currently under development.
Commenting on the unveiling, Sir Richard Branson, Founder of
Virgin Galactic said: “This is truly a momentous day. The
team has created not only a world first but also a work of art. The
unveil of SS2 takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level
and continues to provide tangible evidence that this ambitious
project is not only moving rapidly, but also making tremendous
progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation.”
Photo Courtesy Virgin
Galactic
Burt Rutan, Founder of Scaled Composites added: “All of us
at Scaled are tremendously excited by the capabilities of both the
mothership and SS2. Today is the culmination of a dream that began
many decades ago, was stimulated by Paul Allen’s funding of
our X-Prize winning SS1 and then moved forward to commercial
reality by Sir Richard and Virgin’s visionary investment in a
new future for space transportation.”
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