Virgin Galactic

LOS ANGELES, 5 déc 2009 (AFP)Virgin Galactic, propriété du milliardaire britannique Richard Branson, dévoilera lundi dans le désert californien de Mojave (ouest des Etats-Unis) sa navette spatiale, qui permettra d'envoyer en orbite des "touristes" prêts à débourser la modique somme de 200.000 dollars.

Virgin Galactic has released video and images of its completed SpaceShipTwo prototype vehicle attached to its WhiteKnight Two carrier aircraft hours before the unveiling of the two together for the first time at Mojave air and spaceport in California.
At the unveiling, taking place on 7 December 2009 as darkness falls at the spaceport, governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Richardson of California and New Mexico respectively will christen the spaceship with the name Virgin Space Ship Enterprise.

Commenting on the unveiling, Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic says: "This is truly a momentous day. The unveil of SS2 takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level and continues to provide tangible evidence that this ambitious project is not only moving rapidly, but also making tremendous progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation".

Last year the Whiteknight Two prototype was rolled out in Mojave and named Eve. Enterprise will carry six passengers and have two pilots. It and its mothership have been designed and built by Scaled Composites, which is based at Mojave air and spaceport.

From early next year SpaceShipTwo will undergo captive carry flights attached to its mothership and then under take its own flight test programme, being air launched from its mothership. Once Virgin Galactic enters commercial operation, which is expected to occur in 2012, New Mexico's Spaceport America is to be the world headquarters for the spaceline. The spaceport is located near New Mexico's city of Las Cruces and will be under construction next year.

Both mothership and Enterprise have composite fuselages and Whiteknight Two is powered by four Pratt and Whitney PW308A engines while the spaceship will be powered by a hybrid rocket motor, which is still under development. The mothership has undergone over 20 flight tests since its 21 December 2008 maiden flight.
SpaceShipTwo will be unveiled to the sound of a space-themed anthem from UK disc-jockeys Above & Beyond entitled "Buzz". The track will sample Buzz Aldrin's original Moon landing dialogue. Afterwards there is to be a party with music from Above & Beyond and a cocktail bar

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo could be a single stage to suborbit vehicle using liquid chemical propulsion according to independent research carried out by a company that has been contracted by the European Space Agency for suborbital and hypersonic transport studies

UK company Gas Dynamics has concluded, after its own internal study, using all the publicly available material it could obtain about SS2, that the spacecraft does not need its carrier aircraft WhiteKnight Two if it is fitted with a liquid chemical propulsion system Gas Dynamics has worked for ESA studying suborbital flight because of the agency's interest in using such vehicles for technology testing. The compay's own website refers to "Vinci: A cryogenically fuelled suborbital concept for the European Space Agency"

Hyperbola is not aware of any link between this ESA Vinci suborbital project and Gas Dynamics own internal SS2 study

However the UK firm came to the conclusion that the volume within which SS2 carries its solid rocket motor and nitrous oxide supply could equally hold a liquid chemical propulsion system capable of providing enough thrust for long enough for a horizontal take-off and ascent to 50,000ft and above without the need for WK2

Hyperbola had spoken to Gas Dynamics at an aerospace sciences conference held in the northern English city of Manchester a week or two before the 60th International Astronautical Congress held in Daejeon, south Korea. It was then that this blog learnt of the company's internal SS2 study and related ESA work

At the IAC last October Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn mentioned in passing during his presentation that in future SS2 could use liquid propulsion and Hyperbola sent a cryptic tweet at the time expecting to be able to follow that up with a blog post in the future

This blog was hoping to gain further details about Gas Dynamics' ESA studies in the months since the Manchester conference and IAC but senior European Space Research and Technology Centre managements' nervousness about the perception of suborbital projects meant an interview could not be arranged before now