The mother ship
for a commercial suborbital spaceliner fleet made its longest flight yet Monday
in a test apparently marred only by some slight damage to the
vehicle's tail.
The large WhiteKnightTwo
carrier aircraft "Eve" took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in
California, flying to some 20,000 feet on a successful four-hour flight – the longest so
far and a good initial endurance test, noted Will Whitehorn, President of
Virgin Galactic.
While the
flight test expanded the flight regime of the WhiteKnightTwo, an incident
caused a heart-stopping moment for ground watchers when an apparent crosswind during
a landing strip maneuver pitched the vehicle up steeper than expected, causing
slight tail damage, according to a SPACE.com source.
Virgin Galactic
is the space
tourist travel firm backed by U.K. adventurer and billionaire Richard
Branson and his Virgin Group. Eve is named after Branson's mother. The
WhiteKnightTwo is the mother ship for SpaceShipTwo – also built by a workforce
at Scaled Composites in Mojave, California.
Whitehorn said
that the aircraft's gear was successfully retracted and extended in flight,
with the craft running up in speed in both the gear up and down configuration.
Furthermore, the aircraft's flight
envelope was expanded in the areas of gross weight, as well as G-load
broached, he said.
"We are delighted with the program
so far and are meeting every milestone we are setting," Whitehorn told SPACE.com.
"Sir Richard Branson is looking forward to flying in Eve this summer and then
seeing SpaceShipTwo attached later in the year," he added.
The WhiteKnightTwo was
publicly unveiled at the Mojave Air and Space port on July 28, 2008.
Pucker factor
While details remain a tad murky, the
tail damage was apparently caused during a touch-and-go runway approach by WhiteKnightTwo,
which created a "pucker factor" in eyewitnesses watching the flight.
According to a SPACE.com
source, during the maneuver, the WhiteKnightTwo appeared to have been caught by
a cross wind and pitched up steeper than expected. The result was a tail strike
by both rudders of the large craft, according to one observer.
However, the damage appeared to be
minimal, with the WhiteKnightTwo later making a smooth touch down on the
tarmac.
Following a roster of test
evaluations of the WhiteKnightTwo at the Mojave Air and Space Port, the craft
will carry the now-under-construction SpaceShipTwo - the two pilot/six
passenger suborbital rocket plane.
Virgin Galactic
has ordered five
SpaceShipTwo rocket planes and two of the carrier craft, with options on
more.
The buckle-up price
tag per seat for a suborbital trek onboard SpaceShipTwo is $200,000.
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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