Author Topic: Virgin Galactic: General discussion (2) (Read 213070 times)

Danderman · « **on:** 12/10/2013 03:23 am »

Virgin Galactic 'on track' for 2014 passenger flights

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/virgin-galactic-on-track-for-2014-passenger-flights-393892/

Virgin Galactic is holding to its plan to put its first fare-paying passengers into suborbital space in 2014, and expects to be armed with a US Federal Aviation Administration operating licence during the first quarter of the year.

Addressing the ninth annual space conference at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell, near Oxford, chief executive George Whitesides also promised imminent news regarding the company’s plans to offer air-launches of commercial satellites or scientific payloads from late 2015. The company, he said, has made significant headway on the liquid-fuel rocket it will use for the LauncherOne vehicle, and promised an update “in a few weeks”.

Whitesides also reiterated boss Richard Branson’s promise of starting commercial passenger operations in 2014, made back in October just after the company’s SpaceShipTwo rocketplane made its second powered flight, from its test base in Mojave, California.

Nomadd · « **Reply #1 on:** 12/10/2013 11:43 am »

Figuring the time to get in and out of your seats, hybrids performance cutting zero G from 6 to 4 minutes isn't a minor thing. I wouldn't be too happy to find that out the day before my $250,000 flight. I can see why they'd upgrade the engines.

QuantumG · « **Reply #2 on:** 12/18/2013 12:27 am »

Apparently there's a powered flight set for tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.

parabolicarc · « **Reply #3 on:** 12/18/2013 04:47 am »

Yep. They're planning a powered flight on Wednesday morning. Trying to get it in before the weather turns bad on Thursday. Everyone is off on Friday for two weeks for the holidays, so if there is nothing tomorrow, then they won't fly until January.

Garrett · « **Reply #4 on:** 12/18/2013 09:23 am »

VG still hiring, with a string of recent job openings announced via Twitter (see attached image below)
https://twitter.com/virgingalactic

To be more precise, three of those offers are with TSC (The Spaceship Company) and one is with VG.

Garrett · « **Reply #5 on:** 12/18/2013 09:26 am »

From the "Air Breathing Propulsion Engineer" job position, I would speculate that they are beginning the process of building a second WK2.

simonbp · « **Reply #6 on:** 12/23/2013 03:52 pm »

http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1320475

Branson, amongst other things, wants to double the number of people who have been to space by 2016, and then wants 45 minute flights from San Jose to London.

The latter is rather ambitious.

EDIT:

Doing some ICBM math, that's an apogee of 4452.4 km above the Earth's surface. Quite the view, but also right in the middle of the inner van Allen Belt...

mr. mark · « **Reply #7 on:** 12/30/2013 05:19 pm »

What may be the first video of the engines full duration burn.

Garrett · « **Reply #8 on:** 12/30/2013 06:56 pm »

Quote from: mr. mark on 12/30/2013 05:19 pm

What may be the first video of the engines full duration burn.
<video snipped>

and Richard's blog post to go with that:
http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/the-highlights-of-virgin-galactics-2013

What really caught my eye was the group shot of what I presume are the workers of The Spaceship Company. I count about 95. Pretty big team! And going on their hiring advertisement, that figure could increase quite a bit in 2014. Here's wishing them well!

Robotbeat · « **Reply #9 on:** 12/30/2013 07:41 pm »

Well, if there ever will be point-to-point near-orbital transport like that (whether for nuclear warheads or people), it's sure as heck isn't going to be much like SS2. SS2 has nowhere near the necessary performance.

billh · « **Reply #10 on:** 12/30/2013 07:42 pm »

Quote from: mr. mark on 12/30/2013 05:19 pm

What may be the first video of the engines full duration burn.

Looks like a 56 second burn. Does that sound right? And what are the sparks being thrown off? Also, I noticed that they sure cut off the video quickly at the end of the burn. I wonder why.

savuporo · « **Reply #11 on:** 12/30/2013 07:58 pm »

Quote from: Robotbeat on 12/30/2013 07:41 pm

SS2 has nowhere near the necessary performance.

SS-16 does

Arhangelsk to Washington in 50 minutes one way.

billh · « **Reply #12 on:** 12/30/2013 09:25 pm »

Quote from: savuporo on 12/30/2013 07:58 pm

Quote from: Robotbeat on 12/30/2013 07:41 pm
SS2 has nowhere near the necessary performance.

SS-16 does Arhangelsk to Washington in 50 minutes one way.

You'll be there in a flash.

Vultur · « **Reply #13 on:** 12/30/2013 09:39 pm »

Quote from: Robotbeat on 12/30/2013 07:41 pm

Well, if there ever will be point-to-point near-orbital transport like that (whether for nuclear warheads or people), it's sure as heck isn't going to be much like SS2. SS2 has nowhere near the necessary performance.

I think "SpaceShip Three" is supposed to be that vehicle. IIRC it was originally stated to be orbital but he "downscaled" it to point-to-point suborbital.

Calphor · « **Reply #14 on:** 01/02/2014 05:15 am »

Quote from: billh on 12/30/2013 07:42 pm

Looks like a 56 second burn. Does that sound right? And what are the sparks being thrown off? Also, I noticed that they sure cut off the video quickly at the end of the burn. I wonder why.

IIRC, it is an ablative nozzle, so the sparks are portions of the nozzle material ablating off. Pretty standard for any ablatively cooled nozzle. I bet the erosion rate for the nozzle is pretty high; hybrids pose a particularly difficult material problem in the nozzle area.

Ben the Space Brit · « **Reply #15 on:** 01/02/2014 09:46 am »

Quote from: savuporo on 12/30/2013 07:58 pm

Quote from: Robotbeat on 12/30/2013 07:41 pm
SS2 has nowhere near the necessary performance.

SS-16 does Arhangelsk to Washington in 50 minutes one way.

A military warhead RV is a very different beast from SpaceShip-2. It has a different TPS and can tolerate much higher g-loadings.

The only way I can think around it is to have a very shallow ballistic arc - climb nearly vertically to above the 66 mile limit then pitch-over for a close-to-horizon second burn to give you the lateral velocity you need to reach your destination. You then either do a shallow glide re-entry or propulsively brake Falcon-9 core-style close to the target and feather into the atmosphere as per the normal SS2 flight plan.

Yes, that will require a liquid-fuelled MPS or at least a restart-capable one with a much better Isp than the current hybrid motor.

Danderman · « **Reply #16 on:** 01/08/2014 06:47 pm »

Quote from: gbaikie on 01/08/2014 05:04 pm

"General characteristics
Crew: 2
Capacity: 6 passengers
Length: 18.3 m (60 ft)
Wingspan: 8.3 m (27 ft)
Height: 5.5 m (18 ft – rudders down)
Loaded weight: 9,740 kg (21,428 lb)"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipTwo

From this I am assuming that a LOX Kerosene engine such as the RD-58 that powers the Blok-DM would be sufficient for SpaceShip Two to reach space.

Since the RD-58 has an ISP over 350 seconds, the propellant load could be quite small.

RD-58 has a great track record of not exploding during use.

Kabloona · « **Reply #17 on:** 01/18/2014 06:14 am »

Well, it looks like the immediate next step is the nylon hybrid. Hopefully that works better than the current HTPB hybrid...

So, will they continue doing 20-second burns in flight tests until they can get the nylon motor ready? And can anyone offer an educated guess as to when that might be?

Jarnis · « **Reply #18 on:** 01/21/2014 09:40 am »

Quote from: Kabloona on 01/18/2014 06:14 am

Well, it looks like the immediate next step is the nylon hybrid. Hopefully that works better than the current HTPB hybrid...

So, will they continue doing 20-second burns in flight tests until they can get the nylon motor ready? And can anyone offer an educated guess as to when that might be?

Guess they are still hoping "2014" since reportedly that's what they are telling to the self-loading payload (aka paying customers).

Any word if the Nylon engine has been fired on a test stand yet? I did hear of some unscheduled rapid disassembly an at earlier engine test but I don't recall if it could have been a new model with Nylon or what...

FutureSpaceTourist · « **Reply #19 on:** 01/26/2014 07:22 am »

Tim Bower has an article in today's Uk Sunday Times: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/newsreview/features/article1366953.ece (subscription required for full article)

I assume it's based on his new book about Richard Branson. The article's sub-heading is:

Quote

Richard Branson has vowed to open up the heavens to rich tourists, but behind the fanfare his Virgin Galactic enterprise has been beset by explosions, deaths and delays. Will it ever take off?

It'll be interesting to see if, and how, VG respond.