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SpaceShipTwo: ROLLOUT!

Just saw this news. . . gonna keep it on the NASA Channel just in case they decide to broadcast it.

So is it VSS Enterprise SS-02? or SS-2? :p


Edit: NASA Channel is replaying shuttle launch footage to music that should have been the Enterprise theme song. . .
 
The Scaled Composites (Builder) name for the craft is SpaceShipTwo. Virgin Galactic (owner of the craft) has dubbed the first production model as "VMS Enterprise".

VMS Enterprise is the first of class for SpaceShipTwo, and 4 additional craft are slated to follow this one in the SS2 series.

Before Branson offered sponsorship, SS2 was also referred to as "Tier 2", SpaceShipOne being "Tier 1".

I wanna see Tier 3! Go Rutan!
 
Looks great! I hope the designers of the X-20 Dynasoar are still around to see much of their dream realized. :)
 
...Except that DynaSoar wasn't supposed to do any of the tricks SpaceShipTwo is built for - but was supposed to do much more, such as be capable of reaching orbit. The only similarity seems to be in nose shape, and even that is for the fairly generic reasons that also dictated the nose shapes of the US and Soviet space shuttles.

I'd be more excited if this bird offered the potential for eventual orbital operations or other upscaling. It's pretty much a dead end tech, though. And another way to get people killed in space, since the tech doesn't allow any sort of safety measures to be implemented, either now or after the first fatalities. Which may be a bad thing, or then good - perhaps human space exploration actually takes a step forward when it becomes a routine matter for "ordinary people" to die in space.

Timo Saloniemi
 
Well, yeah I know the mission parameters are different, and the re-entry mode is dfferent, and the X-20 was for orbital ops, but if you pull SS2 off the carrier and look at it, there is a pretty strong similarity in appearance. More so than SS1 or the shuttle.

As for SS2 being dead end. Let's wait to see what rolls out of Mojave as the Tier 3 program. It's not like Rutan to be idle. :)
 
No project which involves private companies and private citizens developing technology which can even nick orbit can be called a dead end.

Honestly, I wonder how much the engineers at SC have learned from building this vehicle, a practical craft which actually works, that will inevitably be applied to much more ambitious machines?
 
Timo said:
...

I'd be more excited if this bird offered the potential for eventual orbital operations or other upscaling. It's pretty much a dead end tech, though...

Timo Saloniemi
Click to expand...

I beg to differ..

SS3W445.jpg
 
They'll have to come up with better thermal protection than SS2 currently has for orbital ops. Even with their shuttlecock return system the initial velocities are much greater.

Certainly not insurmountable, and if anyone can puzzle it out, make it work and make it look cool, Rutan will.


I dug a bit more, and it seems that Branson has hijacked Tier 3 for commercial use. The pic above is of that configuration which is essentially the semiballistic passenger craft a la Heinlein, or the Reagan era "Orient Express" concept. Screw the Concord, this thing is *really* fast!

That doesn't mean that Scaled doesn't have a Tier 4 program cooking, though. :)
 
They'll have to come up with better thermal protection than SS2 currently has for orbital ops. Even with their shuttlecock return system the initial velocities are much greater.
Click to expand...

They'll also have to rethink the whole balance of their payload vehicle. After installing working thermal protection (or, alternately, some fancy way of decelerating more gently) and the sort of life support and maneuvering and navigating systems needed for orbital ops, they'll have to build bigger airframes for both components of the system - a thing that's likely to spiral out of control, as the system is already riding on the limits.

Also, the crucial thing here isn't airborne launch or cute shuttlecock return or any other thing introduced by Rutan so far, but the introduction of a practical engine for getting the "second stage" from airborne to spaceborne. The current hybrid engines are already maxed out, and there's no guarantee that a big solid firecracker will solve the problem that has kept small spaceplanes from becoming reality so far.

All that said, the world is probably better off with Rutan's spaceplanes (and their very useful carrier planes) than without. Just don't expect this to be the look of the future.

Timo Saloniemi
 
SS1 and 2 already have attitude thrusters. GPS makes LEO navigation much easier than the Mercury and Gemini days.

Whether their CO2 (Screw you EPA, plants breathe that stuff!) based attitude thrusters can provide sufficient Delta V for deorbit is unknown to me, so I'll list that as one thing needing to be worked out.

Since they're 1 atmosphere shirtsleeve environment, about all the environmentalsystem needs is more O2 and a CO2 scrubber, unless heat onboard management becomes an issue. I don't think that was a problem during Mercury, Gemini, or Apollo though. I suspect payin passengers would want improved sanitary facilities compared to those of the early NASA says as well.

If the current solid/LOX hybrid is maxxed out, the design is pretty modular and it wouldn't suprise me if Rutan had already been in talks with someone like Orbital Sciences or the like to come up with a liquid system.
 
Ebeneezer said:
Data Holmes said:
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/12/virgin-galactic-ready-to-unveil-spaceshiptwo/

This page has some new photos of it up... Looks like a beauty.

Also Virgin put up some new vids on their Youtube account.
Click to expand...

This is a great reason why the Space Industry should be opened to private industry rather than being squelched under government control.
Click to expand...

It is open to private industry, hence the existence of their program. Since when has the space industry ever been "squelched by government control"? Are you insinuating that the government actively discourages private industry from going into space because they want it exclusively for themselves? Is that because there are strict regulations around it? Why wouldn't there be, you're firing massive containers full of fuel and god knows what else into orbit!?

For the past 60 years, space travel has been a not-for profit enterprise. There is no quick return on it. There is no shareholder support for private corporations to go into space to do science experiments or develop the technologies on their own for space travel. It's unbelievably expensive and very dangerous from a liability point of view. Simply put, if the government had not financed space travel since the 1950s we'd probably have no space program today, and likely even less support by private companies and people like Richard Branson.

There are things that private industry is not capable of doing, namely those you cannot schedule a profit return on.
 
FordSVT said:
Ebeneezer said:
Data Holmes said:
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/12/virgin-galactic-ready-to-unveil-spaceshiptwo/

This page has some new photos of it up... Looks like a beauty.

Also Virgin put up some new vids on their Youtube account.
Click to expand...

This is a great reason why the Space Industry should be opened to private industry rather than being squelched under government control.
Click to expand...

It is open to private industry, hence the existence of their program. Since when has the space industry ever been "squelched by government control"? Are you insinuating that the government actively discourages private industry from going into space because they want it exclusively for themselves? Is that because there are strict regulations around it? Why wouldn't there be, you're firing massive containers full of fuel and god knows what else into orbit!?

For the past 60 years, space travel has been a not-for profit enterprise. There is no quick return on it. There is no shareholder support for private corporations to go into space to do science experiments or develop the technologies on their own for space travel. It's unbelievably expensive and very dangerous from a liability point of view. Simply put, if the government had not financed space travel since the 1950s we'd probably have no space program today, and likely even less support by private companies and people like Richard Branson.

There are things that private industry is not capable of doing, namely those you cannot schedule a profit return on.
Click to expand...
I know all that and am more involved in this area than you are aware. It's my observation of people who believe that space exploration is better left to any or all government control; however, if that were the fact there wouldn't be commercial spaceports being built in both Oklahoma and New Mexico. It is through the efforts of people such as Sir Richard, and others, that will really make space travel boom.
 
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