Space Ship Two - General Thread

[docmordrid]

The Spaceship Company (TSC) is building a 68,000 sq/ft production facility @ Mojave, due for completion by Sept. 2011.  Looks to employ 170 & build 3 more WK2's & 5 more SS2's.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/11/space-tourism.html

[Davidgojr]

Glide Test #3 went off today:

Flight:    WK2 Flight 45 / GF03
Date:    17 Nov 10    Flight Time:    2 hr / 11 min, 39 sec
WK2 Pilot:    Stucky    WK2 CoPilot:    Alsbury    WK2 FTE:    Morgan
SS2 Pilot:    Siebold    SS2 CoPilot:    Nichols
GS Crew:    Binnie, Persall, Knupp, Inks, Bassett, Y. Fuchs, Maisler, Verderame, Zeitlin

Objectives:
Clean release
Evaluate stability and control
Stall expansion
Expand flutter envelope
Aft CG expansion with water ballast tank
Pilot proficiency

Results:
All objectives achieved. Flew to a more aggressive stall indication. Expanded envelope to 246 KEAS and 3.5 g's.

One step closer to powered flights!

[simonbp]

WK2 had some rudder control problems on the first flight, along with vibration on landing, due to one of the wheels. 

It was interesting that they built the crafts without any wind tunnel testing.  They showed people from Scaled making small modles of SS2 and throwing them off the roof.

Yeap. Those lateral stability issues were entirely due the lack of actual wind tunnel testing. They were caused by oscillatory mode from the main gear's wake that was below the accuracy of the CFD models, but sufficient to nearly crash the airplane. Even a simple low-speed wind tunnel test would have shown it, though, as wind tunnels are inherently infinite-order resolution (to the accuracy of the model and the Reynolds number). Rutan's stubbornness about wind tunnels very nearly lead to the loss of WK2.

CFD is great and fast for broad-scale aerodynamic characterization, but for precise work, a wind tunnel is still actually cheaper...

[mtakala24]

CFD is great and fast for broad-scale aerodynamic characterization, but for precise work, a wind tunnel is still actually cheaper...

Please tell Virgin Racing that.. They are going to continue not to test their F1 car in a wind tunnel for next year....

[Robotbeat]

CFD is great and fast for broad-scale aerodynamic characterization, but for precise work, a wind tunnel is still actually cheaper...

Please tell Virgin Racing that.. They are going to continue not to test their F1 car in a wind tunnel for next year....

That's probably the perfect application for CFD-only, because the code and flow are already very well characterized and understood.

[zaitcev]

CFD is great and fast for broad-scale aerodynamic characterization, but for precise work, a wind tunnel is still actually cheaper...

Please tell Virgin Racing that.. They are going to continue not to test their F1 car in a wind tunnel for next year....

Weren't Virgin dead last in initial testing? Nick Wirth ate a fat CFD crow. Of course as season progresses, one takes the actual results into account (still, Virgin finished dead last).

Also, remember Jeff Greason's public conversion to the wind tunnel religion? I think that experience was way more relevant here.

-- Pete

[Chandonn]

We're getting off-topic here, guys

[yg1968]

An update:
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-update-101118.html

[simonbp]

Please tell Virgin Racing that.. They are going to continue not to test their F1 car in a wind tunnel for next year....

Weren't Virgin dead last in initial testing? Nick Wirth ate a fat CFD crow. Of course as season progresses, one takes the actual results into account (still, Virgin finished dead last).

Yeap... (Should mention that my father has designed several F1 wind tunnels... )

[kkattula]

An update:
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-update-101118.html

I think we can pretty safely say now that we'll be in space in 2011.

Sounds like they'll beat XCOR to 100 km, although I suspect XCOR may be doing powered flights to 60+ km first.

[Space Junkie]

The Spaceship Company (TSC) is building a 68,000 sq/ft production facility @ Mojave, due for completion by Sept. 2011.  Looks to employ 170 & build 3 more WK2's & 5 more SS2's.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/11/space-tourism.html

Is this accurate? My impression had been that Virgin's total order
was for 3 WK2's and 5 SS2's. The article implies 3 and 5 more
WK2's and SS2's respectively.

[beancounter]

The Spaceship Company (TSC) is building a 68,000 sq/ft production facility @ Mojave, due for completion by Sept. 2011.  Looks to employ 170 & build 3 more WK2's & 5 more SS2's.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/11/space-tourism.html

Is this accurate? My impression had been that Virgin's total order
was for 3 WK2's and 5 SS2's. The article implies 3 and 5 more
WK2's and SS2's respectively.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is for more than simply the U.S. requirements.  Virgin want to take this enterprise to other countries so it makes sense to have the manufacturing capacity to do that up front.

[docmordrid]

And because Scaled is owned by Northrop Grumman, and NG is the airframe contractor for Orbital's spaceplane, I'd bet on fab work and drop tests (WK2?)  being done @ Mojave. Gonna need more room if that's the case....

[Space Junkie]

The Spaceship Company (TSC) is building a 68,000 sq/ft production facility @ Mojave, due for completion by Sept. 2011.  Looks to employ 170 & build 3 more WK2's & 5 more SS2's.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/11/space-tourism.html

Is this accurate? My impression had been that Virgin's total order
was for 3 WK2's and 5 SS2's. The article implies 3 and 5 more
WK2's and SS2's respectively.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is for more than simply the U.S. requirements.  Virgin want to take this enterprise to other countries so it makes sense to have the manufacturing capacity to do that up front.

So how many of each craft has Virgin firmly ordered? Was it 3 WK2 and 5 SS2 or 4 WK2 and 6 SS2? I'm just confused by the wording of the article.

[MikeAtkinson]

So how many of each craft has Virgin firmly ordered? Was it 3 WK2 and 5 SS2 or 4 WK2 and 6 SS2? I'm just confused by the wording of the article.

I think it just means that Virgin have ordered 3 WK2 and 5 SS2 and Scaled are using 1 WK2 and 1 SS2 for testing/development which will not be delivered to Virgin.

[yg1968]

Update on SS2:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/awst/2010/12/20/AW_12_20_2010_p32-277650.xml&headline=SS2%20Glide%20Tests%20Exceed%20Expected%20Progress&channel=space

[Celebrimbor]

Fourth glide flight has occurred!
http://www.scaled.com/projects/proteus.html

Flight: 47 / GF04 
Date: 13 Jan 11  Flight Time: 11 min, 34 sec 
SS2 Pilot: Stucky SS2 CoPilot: Nichols
GS Crew: Binnie, Kalogiannis, Verderame, Maisler, Persall, Bassett, Zeitlin, Reid, Tighe, Inks

Objectives:
Clean release
Evaluate stability and control
Stall expansion
Continued flutter envelope expansion
Aft CG expansion with water ballast tank
Window heater evaluation
Pilot proficiency

Results:
All objectives achieved. Stall at aft CG. Evaluated flutter modifications to 250 KEAS. Envelope expanded to 3.8 g's. As part of the test objectives, the SS2 pilots vented water ballast just before coming in to land, which produced a visible contrail.

[jabe]

Interesting comment posted on hobbyspace.com
George whitesides mentions that VG should do commercial flights by end of year...interesting..I'm assuming rocket engine is almost completed if that is true..I wonder why the secrecy if its true...
jb

[kraisee]

That's because, when VG have previously stated a date, and the inevitable slips occurred as they always do in this business, the press tore into them for "missing milestones".

So this time, they are just being smart about it.   They're not setting a public date.   And they are keeping their timings deliberately 'fluffy', so that if they do have a few months of delays, it doesn't create anything like the same bad press.

Once bitten, twice shy.


It also takes a lot of "go fever" pressure off the technical team too.   They will still get things right as quickly as possible, and they will only fly when the systems are really ready to fly.   There won't be any arbitrary "you must have it done by XYZ date" pressure, and so the teams can focus on getting the job done right first time.

I think its an excellent -- and highly professional -- way for them to proceed.

Ross.

[zaarin]

Also the brains behind SS2, Burt Rutan is retiring in a couple of months:

http://www.scaled.com/images/uploads/news/Burt_Rutan_Announces_Retirement_Plans_03Nov10.pdf