Rutan rolls out White Knight Two: EVE

[Dr Mordrid]

Press release (PDF)....

No one ever accused Rutan's Scaled Composites of designing ordinary looking aircraft

White Knight Two is the "mothership" for Scaled Composites/Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo private spaceplane.

This first WK2 was christened "EVE", the first name of Sir Richard Branson's mother.

The first SS2 is slated to be christened "Enterprise"

Wing span: 42.9768 meters (141 feet)

Wing spar: 42.672 meters (140 feet) - the longest single carbon composite aviation component ever manufactured

Power: Four Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308A turbofans - 6,900 lbs thrust each

Carry capacity: 30,500 kg (67,252.5 lbs)

Service ceiling: 18,288 meters (60,000 feet)

YES, with that much power it'll be used to carry or launch more than SS2

As you can see there are two pods; one for the flight crew and those training for their flight and the other for spectators & family of those going up. As you can see the front section of the pods are standardized components shared with SS2 itself. Saved a lot of development time.

SpaceShipTwo is carried in the center position to its launch altitude of 50,000 feet then drop-launched.

Pic of SS2 compared to SS1




WK2 images

Artists concept of White Knight Two carrying SpaceShipTwo


WK2 rollout pics

[Fat Tone]

Some BBC coverage here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7529978.stm

[Dr Mordrid]

Rollout video (mov)

[Evildead666]

Super Mega Sweeeeeeeeeeeet.
This is hopefully the beginning of a massive jump to space exploration/industrialisation....

[Dr Mordrid]

They say SS2-1 itself is 70% finished and should be ready in a few months.

In the interim WK2-1 will undergo testing and certification. Once that's finished they will test the stack for 40-50 flights, both captive carry and full launches, then if all goes well Enterprise and EVE will enter service. The first passengers will be Richard Branson, his wife, 2 kids (both adults) & his parents. While that is going on the second White Knight Two and SS2 will be built.

Names/dates of production start:

SS2-1: VSS Enterprise (2008)
SS2-2: VSS Voyager (2009)
SS2-3: VSS Columbia (2009/2010)
SS2-4: VSS Discovery (2010) (name unofficial but likely)
SS3-5: un-named (2011)

Drawing of SS2-s configuration here (BIG!)

Branson and Rutan have stated that up to 50 WK2/SS2's will be built and fly daily from various locations including Spaceport America (New Mexico: video tour (5mb *.mov - right click/save as), Kiruna, Sweden, RAF Lossiemouth (Scotland), Saudi Arabia and the perhaps an unnamed location in asia.

So far 65,000 persons have applied for tickets on Virgin Galactic flights, but before going up they have to go through a 6-8g centrifuge run as part of the medical tests..

[Evildead666]

Thats the big one, DAILY...

Instead of people, just take the tools needed to build a space dock, then start building interstellar vehicles...

[Dr Mordrid]

Suborbital so far so no orbital construction, just passenger flights - have to wait a bit for SS3 for orbital operations, but it's coming.

Don't worry though; there is SpaceX's Dragon orbital 7-person spacecraft which is slated to fly its unmanned test flights starting early next year. After t hose it's in line to replace the shuttle until NASA's "Orion" is ready (but Orion will only carry 4 passengers - go figure)

[Evildead666]

Whens SS3 slated for atm ?

Just wondering whether i'd need to quit smoking to be around for it

[Dr Mordrid]

Whens SS3 slated for atm ?

Just wondering whether i'd need to quit smoking to be around for it

Before reading the below remember that Rutan's Scaled Composites is now a division of Northrop Grumman, the big aerospace/defense conglomerate, so it's resources have been greatly enhanced. They had worked closely before, but NG took a 51% share last year. Even with this relationship Scaled works independently, but if they need resources they're available and considerable.

"The SpaceShip Company" that is building these things is now a combination of Scaled/NG plus Branson's Virgin Group, which makes for a formidable keiretsu. Operations are handled through Virgin Galactic, a Virgin Group company dedicated to commercial space flight.

That said;

SS1 and SS2 are part of the "Tier One" program and are suborbital. If SS2 works for the joyrides then it's slated to be be modified to provide the worlds first hypersonic transport service.

Remember: this thing has a top end with the small rocket it already has of almost Mach 3.5 going straight up. Put in a more powerful booster using nitrous oxide (or LOX) and methane (already under development & testing for NASA & others by XCOR) and it could easily reach Mach 6 or more. Rather than fly transoceanic by being "power on" all the way like the Concorde or subsonic commercial jets it would boost to a much higher altitude, perhaps 300+ miles, with a flatter trajectory for long distance travel then coast all the way across outside the atmosphere.

Mods under discussion beyond a more powerful rocket engine include a more robust thermal protection system and adding small reversible-thrust jets to provide atmospheric deceleration and maneuvering capability for the landing.

No, this isn't speculation; Rutan and Branson said this in 2006 then again in 2007. They're serious. Bigger (read longer) versions for carrying more than 6 passengers & 2 crew and more fuel are also possible as SS2 is highly modularized and the WK2 launcher is at least 30% over powered for SS2.

SS3 would happen if SS2 is successful and would be part of "Tier Two"; their orbital program. I'd say it's not going to happen before 2015, depending on how things go. If they go really well then all gloves may come off.

This would initially include orbital joyrides and trips to the Bigelow space stations which start going up in 2010 with the launch of the Sundancer module. The most likely form factor is a large capsule akin to T/Space's CXV, which was designed by Rutan's Scaled Composites for the NASA COTS program. No, no spaceplane. The simplest, most reliable system for orbital flight is a capsule. Spaceplanes can work, Benson's Dream Chaser is a perfect example, but they're much more expensive and complex.



Note the hatch is in the rear. This is so the forward sections can be completely covered with the heat shield. Yes, this means it comes in nose-first instead of stern-first like Mercury/Gemini/Apollo/Soyuz/Dragon/Orion.

This orientation is a VERY reliable re-entry system in which the spaceship comes in like a shuttlecock, aerodynamically righting itself if its alignment goes off kilter. This technique was perfected after hundreds reentries by US spy satellites in the 60's and 70's and is still in use by the military and NASA for some missions.

Rutan's mantra has always been safe, simple and cheap.

"Tier Three" is their long range plan for deep space travel; commercial trips to asteroids, the moon and eventually Mars.

As I said - these guys are serious.