Virgin Galactic unveils White Knight Two

by Grant Martin on

Virgin Galactic unveiled the White Knight Two, their delivery vehicle for SpaceShipTwo at their Mojave construction facility today, to glorious fanfare and celebration.
White Knight Two is the second version of the mothership that will deliver the suborbital commercial space vehicle, SpaceShipTwo up to 40,000 feet before the daughtership cruises up into low orbit.

Virgin’s rollout of the ship is the first step in testing the new second phase of their commercial space flight system — a variety of static and flight tests still need to be done before the second duo are ready for real test flights. Indeed, SpaceShipTwo is still under construction and was hidden under a black sheet during the ceremonies today.

Check out the exclusive gallery of Gadling’s visit to the White Knight Two including visits from Sir Richard Branson, Buzz Aldrin and Richard Branson and stay tuned for a Gadling report on the entire event later this week!

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Flight attendant wins trip into space — on Rocketplane!

by Grant Martin on

I thought that Rocketplane was a show on the cartoon network until I read an article this morning reporting that a French Flight Attendant won a trip into sub-orbit with the galactic airline.

First, about the flight attendant: Mathilde Epron was working her daily flight schedule when she grabbed a quick Kit Kat snack, tossed the wrapper in the garbage and went on about her normal duties. Suddenly, struck with a feeling that she should have checked the wrapper, she went back to the trash two hours later, dug out the refuse lo and behold, won one of the first trips into space on fledgling space tourism company, Rocketplane.

Secondly, Virgin Galactic has competition? Where did Rocketplane come from? Tell us more about yourselves and your crazy moniker, Rocketplane, we’re delightfully curious.

Apparently, Ms. Epron is scheduled to get four days of astronaut training at Rocketplanes headquarters in Oklahoma then will be on one of the first flights scheduled in 2010.

Only a shade behind Virgin Galactic, which plans to unveil its White Knight Two later this month and carry passengers in 2009.

If Rocketplace sticks to its guns and testing goes well, we could have an interesting commercial space competition in the next ten years. Maybe all of this competition will drive the price of a flight down from 200-250k down to 100k. Time to start saving!

Other tales from the skies
Amazing and insane stories from a real-life flight attendant and co-pilot

Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo is on the way

by Grant Martin on

On the far side of the air travel spectrum, where oil isn’t an issue, flight attendants aren’t cranky and passengers aren’t grumbling about extra baggage fees, Virgin Galactic is hanging out alone in the space travel sector.

Earlier this year, VG announced plans for its new aircraft, the White Knight Two that is being built by their partner, Scaled Composites, along with the release of a variety of media and fanfare.

Now, production has moved far enough so that they’ve been able to pin down rollout and first flight dates for their space vehicle. Virgin hopes that their prototype is ready for operation by the end of July while first flight is slated for some time in September.

The group has yet to construct and reveal Spaceship Two, however, the center part of the dual-aircraft that will actually reach sub-orbit; they plan to have that out the door sometime next year. So don’t get your hopes up on commercial space flight too quickly. Both aircraft, the White Knight Two and Spacehip Two have to be thoroughly tested before the business gets off the ground.

Not that its stopping anyone from reserving their seat. Over 250 people have pledged up to $20,000 for their seats so far, giving the group $36M in the bank for development and company hot-tub parties. Let’s hope that the flight tests go well.

[via Endgadget]

The commercial space race heats up

by Grant Martin on


Remember Virgin Galactic? It’s Richard Branson’s pet project to create the first ever commercial service to fly passengers into a lower orbit, tool around in zero gravity for a little while and float back to the surface. They teamed up with Scaled Composites, the group who built the spacecraft that won the Ansari X prize, to create SpaceShipTwo, which by 2009 should soon be able to carry six passengers and two pilots out into space. One ticket to 68 miles above sea level? $200,000.

It looks like they’ve also got some competition. Xcor, a California based aerospace company, revealed plans for a new sub-orbital aircraft earlier today dubbed the Lynx. It’s significantly smaller than SpaceShipTwo and only able to accommodate one passenger plus one pilot, but it’s a form factor that Xcor thinks will be better suitable to the market. Perhaps the fact that it takes off solo from an airstrip (opposed to the dual aircraft design of SpaceShipTwo) and only goes about half the altitude of its competitor will make it a less expensive flight.

It should be two years before the Lynx is off the ground, and Xcor has still to find a commercial partner to market and operate the flights. But with a little bit of extra competition in the market, maybe the galactic experience will soon be affordable to your average millionaire instead of your average billionaire.

Virgin Galactic has arrived!

by Grant Martin on

Wow. Virgin Galactic revealed the design of its sub-orbital commercial aircraft yesterday and it’s pretty sweet. Together with Scaled Composites’ Burt Rutan, construction is now sixty percent complete with a tentative launch date some time in 2010.

The current design, taken partially from the Space Ship 1 that won the Ansari X Prize in 2004, is based on a carrier aircraft that takes the sub-orbital vehicle to an approach altitude, where it’s released for the remainder of the journey. If you’re curious how that fits in the pictured design, the two hulls on the outside of that aircraft are the launch vehicle — once the appropriate altitude is reached the center section of the aircraft drops out and the two vehicles diverge.

While I’m not as excited about the innovation as Sir Richard Branson (who compares it to the cell phone revolution) is, I’m still genuinely interested in the market and buzz that its creating. At $200,000 a seat I don’t think that any of us are going to be flying any time soon, but 85,000 people have already registered interest in the pricey trip to space. Perhaps said market is stronger than I predicted.

You can read more at the BBC here.

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