The skies
over California's Mojave Air and Space Port are serving as the proving ground
for the WhiteKnightTwo, the massive mothership being tested to air-launch
commercial spaceliners on suborbital flights
A third
test flight of the huge carrier craft - which looks like a giant
catamaran for the sky - is deemed as "imminent", said Will Whitehorn, President
of Virgin Galactic - the company put into business by U.K. adventurer and
billionaire Richard Branson and his Virgin Group, created
Virgin
Galactic's aim is to propel public space
travel into reality.
WhiteKnightTwo's
builders, the Mojave spaceport-based Scaled Composites, unveiled the spacecraft
mothership on July 28, 2008. That rollout was followed by a Dec.
21 maiden flight with another scurry into the sky taking place in early February.
While the
third flight of the vehicle is close at hand, "we never give a date in advance
as we only take off in light winds and generally good weather at this stage in
an experimental program," Whitehorn told SPACE.com.
"Rush
hour"
WhiteKnightTwo
(WK2) will haul the suborbital
SpaceShipTwo spaceliner to a high-altitude release point. That spaceship,
the first of which is nearing completion, has moved from drawings to hardware
thanks to the Scaled Composites work force under the watchful eye of the firm's
founder, Burt Rutan -
now Chief Technology Officer and Chairman Emeritus of the company.
Roaring to
life via a hybrid rocket motor, SpaceShipTwo
will carry two pilots and six passengers on a suborbital trajectory, scooting
the rubber-necking "rush hour" commuters to the edge of space and returning
them to terra firma at $200,000 a seat.
Whitehorn
said that testing of the WK2 carrier plane - christened "Eve" in honor of
Richard Branson's mother - has gone well.
"We now
have just under four hours flying on WhiteKnightTwo and have now gone above
18,000 feet," Whitehorn said. "We are very pleased with progress so far and it
would be fair to describe her performance so far as flawless," he added.
The
up-and-coming next test flight is set to raise the bar in altitude and
flight-duration of the vehicle, Whitehorn said, among other items.
Aircraft
heading: Oshkosh, Wisconsin
For those
hungering for an up close and personal look at WhiteKnightTwo, best head for
the Experimental
Aircraft Association's AirVenture extravaganza being held July 27-Aug. 2 in
Oshkosh, Wisc.
After
successfully completing its initial flight test program, space launch vehicle
Virgin Mothership (VMS) Eve is slated to make its "world public debut" there on
July 27.
The space
launch vehicle will arrive as part of the opening-day air show.
AirVenture
attendees are being promised opportunities for up-close viewing of the vehicle
on the ground each day until its departure flight as part of the Saturday, Aug.
1 air show. Event organizers and Virgin Galactic officials are also scoping out
additional showcase flights during the week.
Whitehorn
pointed out that VMS Eve is not only being designed to lift SpaceShipTwo. The
Virgin Galactic business case for space also includes unmanned satellite launch
or doubling as a space science vehicle, as well as an astronaut training craft.
According
to Whitehorn, Virgin Galactic plans to conduct test flights of VMS Eve carrying
SpaceShipTwo during the second half of 2009.
Leonard
David has been reporting on the space industry for more than four decades. He
is past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space
World magazines and has written for SPACE.com since 1999.
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