Virgin Galactic Spaceship Two Design Announced!

reply to post by sovietman


Actually to follow on the charges issues raised Flight Global posted a new article on the possibility of Scaled still facing charges which is not old news as it hasn't be factored out but I guess the hype of the new designs made them and other figure they need to publish a bit of a downer. Makes me want to laugh if not for the fact of the tragedy of company losing 3 workers.

www.flightglobal.com...

"Our investigation just covers this case from a safety in the workplace perspective. When cases close, we then refer them to the district attorney's office to assess whether there are any criminal or civil issues involved. That usually takes months, at least six months. It depends on [CAL-OSHA's] workload, the complexity of the case, a lot of variables," says Cal-OSHA.

More news on the possible date for roll out of WK2.

Virgin Galactic expects Scaled Composites to roll out its SpaceShipTwo (SS2) carrier aircraft White Knight II (WK2) in early May for ground tests.

Construction of the four-engine, twin-fuselage prototype is 80% complete at Scaled's Mojave, California facility, said Virgin Galactic at the New York unveiling of SS2 and WK2 on 23 January.

Because the WK2's two fuselages will share a common cabin design with the SS2 suborbital vehicle, the carrier aircraft will be used for pilot and passenger training for the spaceship's flights.

www.flightglobal.com...

Sounds great and also nice to see FG clarify the role of the dual cabin though I had gathered as much about its purpose from other media outlets.

Yeah those suits are really strange. I don't believe they will really look like that.
But i didn't notice how many passengers will be able to fly in spaceshiptwo.

reply to post by sovietman


the maximum capacity will be eight people: six paying passengers and two pilots.

I think the design looks pretty cool, I'm looking forward for when it (SS2) goes into orbit later this year.

reply to post by Murcielago


With all the issues and legal 'junk" going on about the explosion of SS2's propulsion system and the fact that its development is on hold would lead me to believe/guess that we are probably going to have to wait for SS2s first flight till early 09. WK2 thou will fly this year in the summer and that its-self will be fairly interesting for all I'm sure.

Originally posted by Canada_EH
With all the issues and legal 'junk" going on about the explosion of SS2's propulsion system and the fact that its development is on hold would lead me to believe/guess that we are probably going to have to wait for SS2s first flight till early 09. WK2 thou will fly this year in the summer and that its-self will be fairly interesting for all I'm sure.

They have said from the get go that the explosion wont slow the project down....and it seems their right.

development on hold? please explain...?

They have said they expect SS2 test flight in 2008, but their likely refering to test drops and whatnot.

reply to post by Murcielago


the link to the info was in a previous post. Now its older news so if you have a more current link or info on the development I'm sure you would be correct. At this point I haven't seen what you have stated.

Work on the propulsion program remains on hold at the moment, with future plans uncertain, but work in other areas, such as the carrier aircraft, continue

www.personalspaceflight.info...


[edit on 30-1-2008 by Canada_EH]

I have been trying to find it, I saw a blog post pointing out that the new White Knight 2 has a startling resemblance to a Myasishchev spaceplane carrier proposal from the old Soviet Union.

The author's theory was that Spaceship Three, unlike One and Two, will be a viable orbital transport.

reply to post by xmotex


Would that be

this?

Yep, that's it, thanks for the link.

Interesting possibility

canada - I cant find a link....but I remember reading that like a month or 2 after the explosion.

xmotex - cool article and pictures.
but there wont be a space ship 3 for a quite awhile yet. Rutan & Branson are still hopeing to make money off of SS2. It will likely be at around 15-20 years before they get to LEO.

reply to post by Murcielago


Well found some more info as well as quote from Rutan about the SS2 developments form just last weeks announcement.

We are having delays in the rocket engine development. We just don't know how long they will be.

They are still trying to determine the exact cause of the nitrous oxide explosion. Outside experts have been called in to help and the final report will be made public


[edit on 1-2-2008 by Canada_EH]

Great thread. I would love to see a documentary on the CF layups before clav and cook, 'specially the centre section on the Knight. Is it just me or does anyone think the wingspar will be pretty highly stressed when the rebound after launch sep occurs? It reminds me a bit of a leaf spring like on the Ferrari F1 front end or like a conventional rear wheel drive auto.

The centre section on the earlier one was different looking deal. Does anyone think that the CF layup might have "banding" in it or cable tensioners to dampen and control the "boing" effect? It is at a fairly low air density... I love the design "tone" of Burt-mobiles... when I was a kid "this" sort of stuff was what I imagined space travel and orbital stuff would be about in the future... like 1980 was going to be future! LOL. The X-15 was so freakin' cool to see on school films... Wednesday afternoons. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo...

I guess revision 3 in the future might produce an orbital vehicle? I keep thinking that the loss of life at Scaled and STS-107 and in all space travel related works is so tragic... but one of the most heroic. I think of all fondly. 122 is "GO" for Feb 7. ATV on deck.

Cool thread.

Vic

[edit on 1-2-2008 by V Kaminski]

reply to post by V Kaminski


Indeed Vic the 3rd model the SS3 is planed to me a orbital model but the SS2 is the true test to see if the demand is there and the logistics can be worked out for the space tourism industry to really take off.

reply to post by Canada_EH


Yeah CA_EH!, orbital is the bomb... polar and equatorial. Big bucks when you can pop out sats and "other things" like a pez dispenser. High orbit though... that takes fuel and mass for any big useful stuff.

What would be the limitations? Anything other than missiles gone orbital plane dropped? How much do you think the concept can be scaled up before materials limits are approached particularly from the drop plane?

If they cold get a payload 12 - 16ft in diameter up in one shot... that would be very, very lucrative over time. I do like that this effort is private.

Vic

[edit on 1-2-2008 by V Kaminski]

Originally posted by V Kaminski

What would be the limitations? Anything other than missiles gone orbital plane dropped? How much do you think the concept can be scaled up before materials limits are approached particularly from the drop plane?

[edit on 1-2-2008 by V Kaminski]

There isn't a ton of info out on the SS3 model which is viewed as the tier 2 in Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic's program of orbital spaceflight. There is a couple of rumors hints though on what is in the concept stage.
The first is the ability for SS3 to dock with other objects in orbit. Also the design is likely to be a more powerful version of the eight-person SpaceShipTwo.

SpaceDev helped develop and build SpaceShipOne's "hybrid" motor, which burned liquid laughing gas and solid rubber. He says the company had to scale the motor's thrust up by a factor of 1000 to prepare for the SpaceShipOne flights.

To get to Mach 25, it has to scale up its most powerful motor by only a factor of four - to provide a total of about 454,000 kilograms of thrust. "It's not that difficult," he says.

That's so cool how much less the motor scale up was! I really hope this works out over the next 10 - 12 years... this could be really exciting. Once one can dock in space... you're orbital. Hmmm. TPS. That'll add some mass. the butyl motors might get the "greens" backs up. But at lest it isn't Hydrazine or C-stof or T-stof. I always loved the STS mains because they are clean burn... sweet but not in the cards unfortunately. Thanx for doin' this thread muchacho.

Cheers,

Vic

Well they announced the likely problem that cause the explosion at Scaled today. Here is small ex from the article and the linky.

Investigation of the accident at Scaled Composites in California on 26 July 2007 suggests the oxidiser tank for the propulsion system under development for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket was the origin of the nitrous oxide explosion that killed three employees.....

"The workers had transferred the nitrous oxide from the [mobile conditioning system] into the propulsion equipment apparatus tank mounted on the test stand. The catastrophic explosion occured about 3s after the [cold nitrous oxide] flow began," says the summary, published on 7 February.

www.flightglobal.com...

A video has made its way onto the net of the build program from Scaled.

link.brightcove.com...

Interesting but dated from around the time of the news release so as to clarify that I'm sure they are further along now.