Space Ship Two - General Thread

[sparrow]

from Sept 4th:   http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=awst&id=news/VIRG09049.xml
from this article "The composite vehicle (SS2) is on track for rollout in December, ..." and (first sentence of 4th to last paragraph 3rd page) "The trailing edge at the center of the span (of WK2) is currently being cut away to enable a large mounting pylon to be attached to hold the spaceship."
I'm thinking the part about the pylon installation on WK2 may explain at least partly why no info about flights since 1 Aug return from Oshkosh.

[Orbiter]

I haven't heard much news on SpaceShipTwo lately, how we looking for a possible first flight?

Orbiter

[Serafeim]

I have read somewhere about drop tests this year ,and full rocket tests and flyback by the end of the year..

[Orbiter]

I have read somewhere about drop tests this year ,and full rocket tests and flyback by the end of the year..

Hmm.. still they're not saying much about the schedule.

Orbiter

[Garrett]

I have read somewhere about drop tests this year ,and full rocket tests and flyback by the end of the year..

Hmm.. still they're not saying much about the schedule.

Orbiter

Some info in this thread also:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=19356.msg557815#msg557815

Test flights beyond the Kaman line should hopefully occur in the early part of 2011.
Rocket testing seems to be going okay.

I'm interested in knowing if anybody has any info on what regulatory issues need to be resolved, and if any could potentially prevent commercial flights taking place in 2011?

[Celebrimbor]

SS2 was taken for a spin last week:

Test: SS2 Taxi 01
Date: 14 Jun 10  Time: 3 hr on runway 
Crew (runs 01-04): Siebold / Nichols
Crew (runs 05): Stucky / Nichols

Results:
Monday was a great milestone for the team. We performed five tests from 25 to 60 mph with two different pilots. All objectives were achieved. They were: condition the brakes and evaluate the landing gear/brake steering/skid shoe performance and general ground handling. The vehicle performed as expected and we're excited to move into the manned phase of the test program.


http://www.scaled.com/projects/proteus.html

[Zond]

Seen flying over Mojave

From: http://twitter.com/mlaughlin

[Robotbeat]

Seen flying over Mojave

From: http://twitter.com/mlaughlin

Cool! Here is a closer, cropped pic (at native resolution, BTW).

[Alpha Control]

I just checked and there's no mention of this on the Scaled website.

www.scaled.com

There's nothing on the Virgin website either.  Makes me highly skeptical.

[corrodedNut]

According to witnesses, the flight was today (about 6 hours ago) Scaled's other "test summaries" haven't been updated on the same day.

[mr. mark]

I don't know what to think. I'm used to Spacex's transparency and how they show their milestones and when things like this come up I get suspicious. Without sounding crazy could this be a prank. I've waiting a long time for the drop test the last thing i want is to be fooled with.

[mr. mark]

I don't see the virgin logo on the inside of the tail section as it appears on SS2. Could this be a model airplane?

[Robotbeat]

I don't see the virgin logo on the inside of the tail section as it appears on SS2. Could this be a model airplane?

I don't see any reason to think this is fake. Everything points to it being real.

[Alpha Control]

I find it hard to believe that a major event like the SS2 first drop flight, which was said to have happened 6 hours ago, isn't mentioned on any of the space sites I checked. (scaled, virgin, space, spaceref, spaceflightnow, spacenews). Not even on the Mojave news sites.

Until proven to be otherwise, I'm calling this a model plane.

[Robotbeat]

I find it hard to believe that a major event like the SS2 first drop flight, which was said to have happened 6 hours ago, isn't mentioned on any of the space sites I checked. (scaled, virgin, space, spaceref, spaceflightnow, spacenews). Not even on the Mojave news sites.

Until proven to be otherwise, I'm calling this a model plane.

This is twitter. You can send stuff directly from your cellphone, bypassing "press releases" and such. Scaled is typically pretty tight-lipped about stuff until they are really ready to release info. It seems quite likely to me that they wouldn't do a press release for this until well after it happened and that some guy might see it flying well before the usual channels catch wind of it.
EDIT:That would certainly be much more likely than some sort of fakery. I mean, really, a fake drop test? Who would spend the time to do that?

[zaitcev]

Rand wrote

I am reliably informed that it was not the real thing, but a model that some of the Virgin guys were flying in the parking lot this morning. The day will come, though. They’ve been doing captive-carry flights. At some point, they’ll have to drop the bird.

http://www.transterrestrial.com/?p=27790

[mr. mark]

This is the problem with the internet. In the old days things had to go through sources and those sources had to be checked before release. So it's a model and it makes private space look bad even if it was not the intention of the poster.

[astrobrian]

According to witnesses, the flight was today (about 6 hours ago) Scaled's other "test summaries" haven't been updated on the same day.

Scaled has always been very "secretive" when it comes to announcements. I recall it took at least a week or so before they added that they had won the X Prize on their websites home page.

[8900]

the picture clearly shows the SS2 gliding independently
should be a drop test

[Garrett]

The photo is pretty convincing, though a drop test so soon after the first ground taxi test (14th June) is surprising.
Maybe it is a prank by @mlaughlin, but if my Google search is correct, Mike is the chief mechanic at XCOR Aerospace, so I would take his tweets as being reliable.
@Suborbi_Science had also talked about a drop test by next month (which I gathered as being July), but I don't know where he gets his info.

EDIT: From @jeff_foust:

@NextGiantLeap It's my understanding that the photo is of an SS2 model, not the real thing.