Virgin Galactic

LOS ANGELES — Scaled Composites has successfully pressurized and powered up Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) from the WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft in flight for the first time.
The milestone was achieved on the second captive-carry test flight, which took the vehicle to its planned launch altitude at around 51,000 ft. On its first flight under the wings of WK2 on March 22, the spaceship was carried to an altitude of 45,000 ft., but the vehicle was not pressurized or activated.
“Peak altitude was 51,000 ft., which allowed for a long cold-soak to evaluate the robustness of the hardware. A simulated spaceship decent/glide mission was made from altitude,” says Scaled Composites, based in Mojave, Calif.
The 4.7-hr. mission also included avionics tests as well as several circuits to provide pilot proficiency training for the crew. The pressurization and electrical system evaluation mission included a post-flight cold-soak systems test as well.
Virgin Galactic, which named the first spaceship the VSS Enterprise, says the test-flight program will continue through 2010 and 2011, “progressing from captive carry to independent glide and then powered flight, prior to the start of commercial operations.”
Virgin Galactic has so far taken $45 million in deposits for flight reservations from more than 330 people. The SS2 has accommodation for two crew and six passengers on suborbital flights.
Scaled Composites has also released details of the latest full-scale flight design Rocket Motor Two (RM2) hot-fire test with the planned flight fuel.
The company says all objectives of the test were achieved, including the hot-fire itself and successful determination of the stability levels of the hybrid rocket. The test, the fourth in the series, included evaluations of the pressurization and data acquisition systems, fuel formulation, nozzle ablation and fuel regression rate. The valve/injector mechanism was also evaluated.
The RM2 will be housed in a composite tail unit at the rear of the 12-ft.-long cabin, and isolated from the vehicle by a pressure bulkhead.
A main valve bulkhead separating the oxidizer tank from the rocket motor will include the injector and valve, as well as a slosh baffle and igniter. The single-use RM2 will be detached from the bulkhead and replaced after every flight.

WhiteKnight Two landing gear fails

The left rear landing gear on Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnight Two failed during a test flight in the Mojave desert 19 Aug.
The quad-engine jet that will be the mothership carrying Virgin's passenger spaceship was on its 37th test flight. The spaceship was not attached at the time of the incident. No one was injured.
The gear failure was a "very, very minor incident" says Virgin Galactic, and will have "no impact on the project at all."

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Virgin has said the test programme is expected to run through most of 2011 before commercial operations begin. More than 300 would-be astronauts have paid for or put down a deposit for a $200,000 ticket with Sir Richard Branson's space tourism venture

SpaceShipTwo To Resume Captive Carry Flights

Scaled Composites is poised to resume captive carry flight tests of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) with the return to flight of the WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) launch aircraft. WK2 was damaged Aug. 19 in a landing gear failure.
The unconventional four-engine mothership resumed flight tests at Mojave, Calif., on Sept. 13 following repairs to the left vertical tail and modifications to the main landing gear. The undercarriage was beefed up with what senior Scaled management describes as a minor modification, plus an additional fail-safe redundancy.
The functional check flight evaluated performance with the gear fixed down, as well as a simulated SS2 glide mission and approach. The flight, which included two touch-and-go approaches, involved pilot proficiency work and evaluations of engine pylons, rudder repairs, lateral stability and environmental-control systems.
Scaled says the Aug. 19 gear failure occurred while the crew was performing touch-and-go maneuvers (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 23). “Upon the fifth nominal touchdown, the left-hand main gear partially retracted. Flight-test engineer Marc Zeitlin immediately annunciated the anomaly and pilot Pete Siebold called for an abort while holding centerline. Meanwhile, co-pilot Clint Nichols secured the engines and systems.”
A subsequent test flight, also made with the gear fixed down, was recently completed with no further issues, the company says.
Envelope expansion work with the space vehicle attached will still be possible with the gear deployed due to the relatively high-power capability of the WK2’s four Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308A engines.

Virgin Galactic spaceship flies first mission with pilots

The VSS Enterprise spaceship on 10 October flew under its own control and glided to a landing at the Mojave Air and Spaceport for the first time.
The unpowered test with test pilot Pete Siebold and co-pilot Mike Alsbury aboard marked a major event on the path to the first powered flight test for the programme sponsored by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
As the first aircraft in the Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo class, the Enterprise had already flown four times while attached to the VMS Eve mothership.

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On this flight, Eve carried the Enterprise to an altitude of 45,000ft, then released the aircraft after checking that all systems were working.
During the flight, Siebold and Alsbury completed a number of test points, including an initial evaluation of handling and stall characteristics, verifying stability and control predictions and analysing the profile of the spaceship's lift-to-drag profile.
SpaceShipTwo aircraft are designed to boost into suborbital space at speeds over M3.5. After reaching apogee, the pilot must glide the aircraft to a landing.

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Virgin Galactic ship flies in ‘feathered’ reentry configuration

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Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo flew for in its reentry “feathered” configuration for the first time Wednesday.
The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft released the ship, named VSS Enterprise, at 51,500 feet. Pilots then rotated the ship’s tail section to a 65-degree angle, relative to the fuselage and kept the configuration for about 1 minute and 15 seconds, Virgin Galactic reported.
The feathered configuration is designed to create drag and slow the ship down after it reenters the atmosphere from flights taking tourists into space. The design calls for the tail to lower at around 70,000 feet, allowing the ship to glide back to a runway.
Ship builder Scaled Composites is now analyzing data from the flight, which met all of its objectives, Virgin Galactic said.
“This morning’s spectacular flight by VSS Enterprise was its third in 12 days, reinforcing the fast turnaround and frequent flight-rate potential of Virgin Galactic’s new vehicles,” Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Officer and President George Whitesides said in a news release. “We have also shown this morning that the unique feathering re-entry mechanism, probably the single most important safety innovation within the whole system, works perfectly.”