Space Ship Two - General Thread

[Ronsmytheiii]

The military seems more interested to me with a loitering high altitude balloon than any spaceflight application.   Seems better at reconnaissance gathering than going to orbit.

[kkattula]

Has Orbital been experimenting a little too much with N2O?

[antonioe]

No, but here is an extract from our Equal Opportunity Employment policy:

"Orbital is committed to equal employment opportunity and non- discrimination for all employees in all job classifications and for prospective employees, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, veteran status, physical or mental disability" (emphasis added, but according to DWT it explains my behavior, to include my postings in the forum) 

[antonioe]

The military seems more interested to me with a loitering high altitude balloon than any spaceflight application.   Seems better at reconnaissance gathering than going to orbit.

The problem is having a balloon loiter... many $$$'s and brain cycles have been devoted to that problem and, so far, nobody seems to have been able to crack that nut without unobtanium.

[kevin-rf]

No, but here is an extract from our Equal Opportunity Employment policy:

"Orbital is committed to equal employment opportunity and non- discrimination for all employees in all job classifications and for prospective employees, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, veteran status, physical or mental disability" (emphasis added, but according to DWT it explains my behavior, to include my postings in the forum) 

I looked at the time of your origonal post and was chalking it up to bad milk with your bed time cookies Glad to see the condition is covered by your employer

That or you've been reading up on Joseph Kittinger and Project Excelsior... then scheming. I'll jump if you jump first

[Garrett]

Anybody have any further news on WhiteKnightTwo's maiden launch? From this article it should be about now (or maybe even completed):
http://www.livescience.com/blogs/2008/10/22/spaceliner-mothership-readied-for-takeoff/

Thanks.

[kkattula]

No, but here is an extract from our Equal Opportunity Employment policy:

"Orbital is committed to equal employment opportunity and non- discrimination for all employees in all job classifications and for prospective employees, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, veteran status, physical or mental disability" (emphasis added, but according to DWT it explains my behavior, to include my postings in the forum) 

Damn! Where do I sign up?

[kevin-rf]

Anybody have any further news on WhiteKnightTwo's maiden launch? From this article it should be about now (or maybe even completed):
http://www.livescience.com/blogs/2008/10/22/spaceliner-mothership-readied-for-takeoff/

Thanks.

Thanks for the link, 30 SS 2 test flights before carrying a single passenger. WoW In terms of manned space flight that's unheard of, but in terms of airliners I guess not so much. I wonder how long those 30 flights will take, 6 months, 12 months?

[AndrewSTS]

I'm sure Virgin will throw out some more PR nonsense about how nothing existed between the Wright Brothers and their 'wonderful' ship.

 

[jabe]

Anybody have any further news on WhiteKnightTwo's maiden launch?

From Rob Coppinger's blog, he is trying to find out more info .  So keep checking there now and again since he may have the first tidbits.  Can't wait for the first drop test myself. 
I'm more concerned about the development of the rocket engine.  They took a long time off because of the accident investigation.  So lets hope they aren't too far behind in that regards.
jb

[Lampyridae]

There is also the "small" (ahem...) problem of the desirability of stable high-alpha flight capability (does wonders for your trajectory in terms of max q, max g's, max heating rate, etc. etc...)

SO... take a Velocity or LongEze, give it a pressurized cabin, arrange so it is stable at extremely high angles of attack - for example, by having a variable incidence angle wing and tail group, never mind the drag - add a suitably sized rocket engine, drop it from White Knight and Violá!  The perfect low cost, low-risk high altitude, high speed "bunny hop" airplane.

Wait, wait... somebody named Bart or Bert already already did that... I think it's called SpaceShip One!!!

Curse me for a fool. I never even thought about the high AoA in a SS1 launch.

[Lampyridae]

The military seems more interested to me with a loitering high altitude balloon than any spaceflight application.   Seems better at reconnaissance gathering than going to orbit.

The problem is having a balloon loiter... many $$$'s and brain cycles have been devoted to that problem and, so far, nobody seems to have been able to crack that nut without unobtanium.

IIRC, the loiter problem was why MOGUL was a big wet flop.

What about lifting body dirgibles? They could probably loiter for a long time.

[jabe]

Some real interesting tidbits posted on hyperbola blog by rob coppinger on their flighthyperbola twitter page.
quick summary...
Spaceshiptwo almost ready to fly.  Waiting for whiteknight two.
WW2 should have first flight soon.  (But have heard that before )
WW2 should be able to fly to 70,000 ft now (not sure what it was to do before)lots more people have signed up for flight

jb

[Davinator]

Should this even be covered by this site? It's not much more than a parabolic plane ride, or maybe people are falling for the PR hype?

[stockman]

Should this even be covered by this site? It's not much more than a parabolic plane ride, or maybe people are falling for the PR hype?

Absolutely it should be.. parabolic flight or just hype aside it is a project for suborbtal flight in progress.. success or failure yet to be determined but for sure it fits here. I find it surprising that question was even asked...

[jabe]

from Flight global.  Looks like flight is going to be sooner than later.  Fun watching Spacex and Virgin with their firsts happening around same time.
jb

[iamlucky13]

Another from Flight Global...very short video clip of a White Knight 2 taxi test on Friday, apparently from a bystander with a digital camera:

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/12/13/320125/world-exclusive-video-spaceshiptwo-mothership-runway.html

Still hoping to fly in the next couple of weeks.

[STS Tony]

Coppinger's getting carried away with the "WORLD EXCLUSIVE" tags. It's because no one else is covering this nonsense.

He'll get some competition when Paris Hilton's bloggers start covering her joyride.

[jabe]

The main web page of Virgin galactic has a new video. (I think) It has some shots of the simulator for spaceship 2 around the 6:29 mark.
not sure how long vid has been up but is a good PR vid (Well I think so ).  Lets hope it flies soon.
jb

[jabe]

looks like white knight2 got it first test flight
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/081221-whiteknighttwo-test.html