Space Ship 2 Updates thread....

[docm]

Great news, but I like this pic better

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Testing certainly seems to be speeding up. A firm date for the first passenger flight seems probable soon.

 

[docm]

Reports are she's in the air.

 

[SteveCNC]

Awesome ! I really hope it all works out . One of the few times I wish I was into twitter .

 

[docm]

@42,000 ft. Follow PM tweets here

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science ... t-liveblog

National Geographic is filming

 

[brandbll]

Very exciting time, hope it all works out. Do they have someone piloting it in these tests or is it all automated?

 

[docm]

DROP!!!

7:53am PT: "Beautiful day to go flying" is the call from the cockpit. "We are armed, four three two one Release release release!" 

7:55am PT: The three aircraft are directly overhead now. SpaceShip, StarShip and White Knight.

7:57am PT: "2g pull coming" is call from cockpit as White Knight comes around, turning back to the east. 

7:58am PT: "What a beautiful flying airplane" call from the pilot.

8:01am PT: MotherShip, or WhiteKnight, is testing air brakes. Now at 13000 feet and descending. 

8:06am PT: Wow. Spaceship touches down to cheers and Whistles "wheelstop. Great job" on radio. 

8:08am PT: SpaceShip is on runway now. WhiteKnight is sweeping in for landing. 

8:10am PT: Correction: WhiteKnight is doing 360s! Cool to see!

 

[brandbll]

Looks like all went well. Congrats to that crew!

 

[EarthlingX]

SDC : Virgin Galactic's Private Spaceship Makes First Solo Glide Flight

By Leonard David
SPACE.com's Space Insider Columnist
posted: 10 October 2010
11:52 am ET



A private suborbital spaceship flew its first solo test flight today (Oct. 10) from Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Though the craft did not reach space, it was a major milestone for the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, which flew in glide mode for some 15 minutes once released from its carrier plane, WhiteKnightTwo, according Bill Deaver, an eye-witness of the test flight.

"It was perfect landing," Deaver told SPACE.com. "It looked just spectacular."

Once released from the huge mothership, two pilots controlled the SpaceShipTwo to a safe runway touchdown.

...

 

[EarthlingX]

http://www.virgingalactic.com : VSS Enterprise Completes First Manned Glide Flight

10.10.10



VSS Enterprise achieves manned free flight from over 45,000 ft (13,700 metres) and successfully glides to land at Mojave Air and Spaceport.

10th October 2010, Mojave, CA. Virgin Galactic, the US company developing the world’s first commercial manned space flight system and tourism business, is delighted to announce the successful completion today of the first piloted free flight of SpaceShipTwo, named the VSS Enterprise. The spaceship was released from its mothership at an altitude of 45,000 ft
(13,700 metres).

During its first flight the spaceship was piloted by Pete Siebold, assisted by Mike Alsbury as co-pilot. The two main goals of the flight were to carry out a clean release of the spaceship from its mothership and for the pilots to free fly and glide back and land at Mojave Air and Space Port in California.



Other detailed objectives of the flight were successfully completed, including; verification that all systems worked prior and following the clean release of Enterprise; initial evaluation of handling and stall characteristics; qualitative evaluation of stability and control of SS2 against predictions from design and simulation work; verification of performance by evaluating the lift-to-drag ratio of the spaceship during glide flight; practice a landing approach at altitude and finally descend and land.

Preparations for the milestone flight were extensive. The WhiteKnightTwo mothership (Eve) flew 40 times including 4 captive carry flights of spaceship and mothership mated together. The most recent captive carry was on Sept 30th. The most recent solo flight was on October 5th and demonstrated that all the systems required for a free flight by the VSS Enterprise were functioning correctly without any safety issues. Commenting on the successful flight Scaled Composites pilot, Pete Siebold, said “The VSS Enterprise was a real joy to fly, especially when one considers the fact that the vehicle has been designed not only to be a Mach 3.5 spaceship capable of going into space but also one of the worlds highest altitude gliders.”



Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, who was present during the first successful flight, added “This was one of the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin. For the first time since we seriously began the project in 2004, I watched the world’s first manned commercial spaceship landing on the runway at Mojave Air and Space Port and it was a great moment. Now, the sky is no longer the limit and we will begin the process of pushing beyond to the final frontier of space itself over the next year.”

Virgin Galactic is now well on the way to becoming the world’s first commercial space line with 370 customer deposits totalling $50 million. Future commercial operations will be at Spaceport America in New Mexico where final preparations are taking place for a finished runway inauguration ceremony on Friday 22nd October 2010. National Geographic channel in the United States will be showing a documentary on the build up and preparation for the first flight of VSS Enterprise on Monday, 18 October at 10.00pm ET/PT.

George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic who was also present at the historic flight, added “To see the world’s first manned commercial spaceship landing on a runway is a sight I always dreamed I would behold. Now, our challenge going forward will be to complete our experimental program, obtain our FAA licence and safely bring the system into service at Spaceport America, New Mexico.”

http://www.virgingalactic.com : More images

 

[TheNavigator]

Congratulations to to the SS2 flight test team and all of Scaled. Job well done!

I'm so very pleased to be living in an era to witness the proliferation of space access. SpaceX, Bigelow, Virgin Galactic, Boeing, X-prizes, China, India... I think space is going to become a busier place. (And it's about time)

 

[gawin]

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!! also I love the smiley face on that bottom of the attachment point for SS2 zoom in on the top pic to see it on WK2

 

[EarthlingX]

Yea, that's cute

How about this :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDUVe3a496Y[/youtube]

virgingalactic | October 10, 2010

Exclusive footage of VSS Enterprise as she is released from her mothership, VMS Eve and glides fantastically back down to Mojave Space Port

 

[mr_mark]

It's great to see this coming along. In about a year and a half we'll see the first passenger suborbital spaceship. Simply amazing!

 

[docm]

See how stable she was right from the get-go? Speaks volumes about the work they've done.

 

[robotical]

Woo hoo! When will the first full flight test be conducted?

 

[Yuri_Armstrong]

This is an amazing accomplishment. When will they do their first real flight with passengers and everything? And do they have any plans for orbital flights???

 

[Gravity_Ray]

There are only vague suggestions about when the first people will go to space, but they keep saying within 1 year. So presumably by the end of 2011.

No Yuri, Virgin Galactic has stated that they have no immediate plans to go orbital. After they get this project up and running, they have hinted of a point-to-point travel. That is launching from US or Europe going into space and then landing in Asia for example.

 

[vattas]

It's frustrating when "news" about some celebrity's (IQ 70) wardrobe [intentional] malfunction gets hundreds of comments in one of our news portals and news about SS2 test gets 18 comments...

Beautiful bird.

 

[EarthlingX]

It's quality that matters, not quantity, well, at least to me ..

Perhaps you would like to know, there are new images from the flight :


http://www.virgingalactic.com : VSS Enterprise Completes First Manned Glide Flight

A couple for a taste :

 

[vattas]

It's quality that matters, not quantity, well, at least to me ..

Unfortunately this doesn't apply to voting...

 

[EarthlingX]

Fortunately, evidence and experimental results are not something you vote for, but observe and measure - well, at least that's how it should be ..

 

[vattas]

Well, what I meant to say is that if we have one politician declaring need to advance science jobs and another that claims to battle poverty, give free education to everyone, lower prices (and other usual populist BS), people, who are more interested in celebrity gossip will vote for later. So in this case it's quantity that counts. Unfortunately.

But we are getting off-topic.

 

[EarthlingX]

http://www.wired.com : SpaceShipTwo Flies ‘Flawlessly’ On First Glide Flight

By Jason Paur

October 13, 2010, 8:00 am

Burt Rutan, Mike Alsbury, Mark Stucky, Peter Kalogiannis, Richard Branson, Wes Persall and Peter Siebold stand beneath SpaceShipTwo’s attach point on Eve.

After Sunday’s first glide flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, one of the first thoughts going through the head of test pilot Peter Siebold after coming to a stop on the runway was that it all went by too quickly. He and co-pilot Mike Alsbury had been released from the mother ship, Eve, just 13 minutes earlier at 45,000 feet.

The flight was an overwhelming success with the airplane out performing many of the pre-flight expectations. And with the hard work of a first flight behind him, Siebold wanted to make the flight again for the pure joy of flying an airplane he and the team at Scaled have spent the past several years developing.

“After we landed, I looked over to Mike and said, ‘can we do that again?’'

...

Gear down and speed brake down, SpaceShipTwo prepares for landing.

...

Pete Siebold just about to touch down at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

...

 

[p3rocro]

Congrats!!!!!!