Virgin Galactic reveals SpaceshipTwo

We’ve seen the mothership from which the world’s first manned commercial spaceship will be air launched and we’ve even seen design images of the craft itself. Now Virgin Galactic has unveiled the actual spaceship that will take private astronauts into space – SpaceshipTwo (SS2). The unveiling at Mojave Air and Spaceport today marks the first time the craft has been revealed to the public since construction began in 2007 and brings Virgin Galactic another step closer to realizing its goal of becoming the world’s first commercial space line providing private sector access to space.

Subject to certain U.S. regulatory requirements that will guide the unveiling, SS2 will be attached to her WK2 mothership, EVE, which was unveiled last year. In the future, WK2 will carry SS2 to above 50,000 feet (16km) before the spaceship is dropped and fires her rocket motor to launch into space from that altitude. Following the 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 christened SS2 with the name Virgin Space Ship (VSS) ENTERPRISE.

The SS2 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 WK2 mothership has now also completed a year of rigorous and successful first phase flight-testing prior to today’s attachment of SS2. Virgin Galactic says the SS2’s design will be refined and completed during an extensive test flying program to commence shortly, and it will be an entirely new vehicle by the time it is capable of carrying up to six passenger astronauts and up to two pilot astronauts into space on a sub-orbital flight. By then SS2 will be powered by a unique hybrid rocket motor, which is currently under development.

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• Virgin Galactic Unveils Commercial Spaceship (nytimes.com)
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Tags: ansari x prize, hybrid rocket, mothership, orbital flight, pilot astronauts, private space, Spaceship Two, spaceshiptwo, ss1, sub-orbital flight, Virgin Galatic

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 7:22 pm and is filed under Innovation, Just Fun, gizmag. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.