Virgin Galactic Unveils Space Liner Mothership

With all the pageantry of a king's arrival, the WhiteKnightTwo — a huge flying launch pad to support passenger suborbital space travel — made its public debut here Monday.

The rollout of the colossal composite plane signals the first phase of a critical test program to establish a private spaceliner business — a venture being bankrolled by British entrepreneur and billionaire, Richard Branson and his Virgin Group.

Looking like a giant catamaran for the sky, the twin-boom, two individual fuselages are topped by a large, 140-foot (42-meter) long stretch of wing. The aircraft will straddle and carry to drop altitude (around 48,000 feet) the SpaceShipTwo — a six passenger, two pilot craft that, once released, will rocket pay-per-view passengers to some 65 miles (104 km) above the Earth.

With a giant screen featuring Virgin Galactic's logo of an eye lifting upwards, the audience was treated to the dramatic unveiling of WhiteKnightTwo positioned on the outside tarmac — complete with Branson and Rutan waving from separate windows on the carrier craft. SpaceShipTwo, still under construction, was shrouded in a large black tarp just a few feet away during the unveiling of WhiteKnightTwo. The carrier aircraft has been christened "EVE" in honor of Sir Richard's mother.

Four turbofan jet engines power the WhiteKnightTwo, an aircraft that has more capability than needed for SpaceShipTwo operations. The mega-plane has undergone extensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) testing, he said — that's aerodynamic speak for utilizing electronic wind tunnel evaluations versus wind tunnel testing.

Passengers riding in the WhiteKnightTwo launch aircraft will be provided a spectacular view as well — with SpaceShipTwo peeling away and blasting skyward toward space.WhiteKnightTwo will serve as training ground — albeit in the air — for future space travelers. The mega-plane can provide stints of microgravity for next-in-line SpaceShipTwo flyers, with the aircraft also able to give clientele six to seven Gs to mimic the forces encountered during a suborbital space jaunt.

In addition to supporting suborbital space travel, the WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane can satisfy a range of market needs from satellite launchings to deploying unmanned aerial vehicles, or toting large quantities of water to help squelch raging fires, as well as hauling hefty amounts of cargo from point to point.

Stuart Witt, General Manager of the Mojave Air & Space Port, said there's a significance that might be missed given today's rollout of WhiteKnightTwo.

"It's all about results," Witt told SPACE.com. "That's why people come to Mojave. The WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo...they are one more example of a result that will yield breakthroughs in aerospace. Here at the Mojave Air and Space Port, we're all about results."

Witt said the Air & Space Port is ready to support WhiteKnightTwo and the SpaceShipTwo test program. "I am looking forward for Scaled Composites to get back into the rocket testing business...and on we go!"

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VIRGIN GALACTIC TO FLY HUMANS TO SPACE

Virgin Galactic on Wednesday 23rd January 2008 launched a new spacecraft that would fly Humans to space.

The SpaceShipTwo spacecraft and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier will begin initial tests this summer to shakedown the novel spaceflight system designed by aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan and his firm Scaled Composites.
"2008 really will be the year of the spaceship," said British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, who unveiled a 1/16th-scale model of the new spacecraft here at the American Museum of Natural History.

Based on Rutan's SpaceShipOne, a piloted and reusable spacecraft that won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for suborbital spaceflight in 2004, SpaceShipTwo is an air-launched vehicle designed to carry six passengers and two pilots to suborbital space and back.

Virgin Galactic is offering tickets aboard SpaceShipTwo spaceliners for an initial price of about $200,000, though Branson said the cost is expected to drop after the first five years of operations.

The space tourism firm plans to eventual launch flights out of a terminal at New Mexico's Spaceport America, with additional trips through the aurora borealis to be staged from Kiruna, Sweden.

To date, Virgin Galactic has about 200 assured passengers for future flights, $30 million in deposits and about 85,000 registrations from customers interested in flying aboard SpaceShipTwo.

Each spacecraft is designed to fly twice a day, with their WhiteKnightTwo carriers capable of up to four daily launches, Rutan said. Over 12 years, more than 100,000 people could fly to suborbital space aboard the vehicles, he added.

Will Whitehorn, Virgin Galactic CEO, said each SpaceShipTwo passenger will be equipped with a pressure suit as a safety precaution, be free to move about a roomy cabin equivalent to a Gulfstream aircraft and peer at the Earth through wide, 18-inch (46-cm) windows during several minutes of weightlessness offered on each spaceflightFamily members of passengers or other space tourists can watch a SpaceShipTwo launch from inside a WhiteKnightTwo cabin, each of which sits just 25 feet (7.6) meters from the center-mounted spaceship.

While the initial round of tests is slated for sometime this summer and the first spaceflights pegged for 2009, Whitehorn stressed that safety is paramount.

Patricia Grace Smith, the FAA's associate administrator for commercial space transportation, lauded the commitment of Virgin Galactic and Scaled to safety after SpaceShipTwo's unveiling. "It is the entrepreneurial spirit that will take this country forward," Smith said. "This is going to catch like a wild fire we have never seen."

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