posted July 16, 2010 03:03 PM               

VSS Enterprise Makes First Crewed Flight

15th July was a significant milestone for Scaled Composites as the team march towards the first solo flights of VSS Enterprise.

For the first time VSS Enterprise flew with crew on board. As planned, the spaceship remained attached to VMS Eve (captive) for the duration of the flight and numerous combined vehicle systems tests were conducted. In addition and for the first time, the two crew members on board VSS Enterprise, evaluated all of the spaceship’s systems and functions from end to end in the air. Objectives achieved.

Congratulations to the whole team!

Mission Details:

• WhiteKnightTwo (VMS Eve) flight number 33
  
• SpaceShipTwo (VSS Enterprise) flight number three in captive carry configuration.
  
• Flight Time: 6 hours 12 minutes
  
• VMS Eve crew: Mark Stucky, Peter Kalogiannis, Brian Maisler
  
• VSS Enterprise crew: Peter Siebold, Michael Alsbury

posted July 19, 2010 01:05 PM               

VSS Enterprise Makes First Crewed Flight

posted August 16, 2010 11:55 AM               

RocketMotorTwo Hot-Fire Test Summaries

Many subscale hot-firings were performed at Scaled Composites, LLC between Jun 05 and April 09 to evaluate several different fuels, igniters, injectors, insulators and nozzle configurations, as well as other components and parameters.

Based on the results of those subscale firings, the Scaled/SNC team chose a full-scale rocket motor system design and began testing in April 2009.

The following list includes summaries of the hot-fire activity of the RocketMotorTwo rockets.

posted August 19, 2010 06:42 PM               

Minor WhiteKnightTwo incident

A minor incident occurred on the runway at Mojave airport this morning, which involved a mechanical problem with the left hand-side landing gear of WhiteKnightTwo. No injuries were sustained and the incident did not involve the Spaceship which was not attached to WhiteKnightTwo.

WhiteKnightTwo was on its 37th test flight, and has been flying since December 2008.

Further information will be posted in due course.

posted October 10, 2010 03:48 PM               

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Achieves Major Milestone

VSS Enterprise Achieves Manned Free Flight from Over 45,000 ft (13,700 metres) and Successfully Glides to Land in 11 Minutes at Mojave Air and Space Port

10th October 2010, Mojave, CA. — Virgin Galactic, the US company developing the world's first commercial manned space flight system and tourism business, is delighted to announce the successful completion today of the first piloted free flight of SpaceShipTwo, named the VSS Enterprise. The spaceship was released from its mothership at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13,700 metres).

Credit: Virgin Galactic/ Mischa Varmuza

During its first flight, the spaceship was piloted by Pete Siebold, assisted by Mike Alsbury as co-pilot. The two main goals of the flight were to carry out a clean release of the spaceship from its mothership and for the pilots to free fly and glide back and land at Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Other detailed objectives of the flight were successfully completed, including; verification that all systems worked prior and following the clean release of Enterprise; initial evaluation of handling and stall characteristics; qualitative evaluation of stability and control of SS2 against predictions from design and simulation work; verification of performance by evaluating the lift-to-drag ratio of the spaceship during glide flight; practice a landing approach at altitude and finally descend and land.

Credit: Virgin Galactic/Mark Greenberg

Preparations for the milestone flight were extensive. The WhiteKnightTwo mothership (Eve) flew 40 times including 4 captive carry flights of spaceship and mothership mated together. The most recent captive carry was on Sept 30th. The most recent solo flight was on October 5th and demonstrated that all the systems required for a free flight by the VSS Enterprise were functioning correctly without any safety issues. Commenting on the successful flight Scaled Composites pilot, Pete Siebold, said "The VSS Enterprise was a real joy to fly, especially when one considers the fact that the vehicle has been designed not only to be a Mach 3.5 spaceship capable of going into space but also one of the worlds highest altitude gliders."

Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, who was present during the first successful flight, added "This was one of the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin. For the first time since we seriously began the project in 2004, I watched the world's first manned commercial spaceship landing on the runway at Mojave Air and Space Port and it was a great moment. Now, the sky is no longer the limit and we will begin the process of pushing beyond to the final frontier of space itself over the next year."

Credit: Virgin Galactic/Mark Greenberg

Virgin Galactic is now well on the way to becoming the world's first commercial space line with 370 customer deposits totalling $50 million. Future commercial operations will be at Spaceport America in New Mexico where final preparations are taking place for a finished runway inauguration ceremony on Friday 22nd October 2010. National Geographic channel in the United States will be showing a documentary on the build up and preparation for the first flight of VSS Enterprise on Monday, 18th October at 10.00pm ET/PT.

George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic who was also present at the historic flight, added "To see the world's first manned commercial spaceship landing on a runway is a sight I always dreamed I would behold. Now, our challenge going forward will be to complete our experimental program, obtain our FAA licence and safely bring the system into service at Spaceport America, New Mexico."

posted October 12, 2010 10:16 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
I am going to quote Bill Paxton's line from Aliens just before the drop ship launched: "We're on an express elevator to hell... going down!"

---

Just hope you don't follow it up with "Game over, man...GAME OVER!

posted October 13, 2010 11:44 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by SpaceAholic:
Interesting to see the gear are deployed on the WK2 at VSS release...

---

Because of a recent landing gear issue with Eve that is still being resolved, the Scaled team elected to fly the mother ship with the gear down and locked throughout the entire flight. This limited the release height to 45,000 feet, the approximate ceiling of the aircraft in the gear down configuration at the weight flown on Sunday.

posted October 13, 2010 11:51 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by gliderpilotuk:
Looking at the video and at the hot and steep approach and high round-out it must have the glide ratio of a brick.

---

Unlike its predecessor, SpaceShipOne, this space ship has a belly mounted speed brake that can be used to control the glide ratio of the descent portion of the flight. SpaceShipOne had a lift to drag ratio (L/D) of 7:1 during the descent. The only way that could be changed was by lowering the gear, which was done just before touchdown as there was no way to retract the gear once it was down. With the speed brake, pilots of SpaceShipTwo will be able to adjust the glide during the descent to account for changing winds and other variables Siebold says.

"It gives a tremendous amount of flexibility where you can change the L/D in real time during the descent and not only use the turn radius of the approach."

posted October 19, 2010 10:29 AM               

It highlighted some of the technical issues with both aircraft. The rudder oscillations on the first flight of WK2 looked pretty interesting from the cockpit. And it appeared that the nose skid did not indicate down onboard SS2 on the glide flight.

Siebold said he was going to use the emergency deploy, but someone on the radio (sounded like Mike Melvill) told him it looked good from the chase plane.

posted December 23, 2010 10:15 AM               

Whitehorn is retiring from Virgin Galactic to concentrate on other business interests. He is currently Chairman of Next Fifteen Communications and Loewy Group Ltd.

In addition he sits on the boards of the SECC in Glasgow and ILN Group in London. He is a member of the British Government's Science and Technology Facilities Council and The Space Leadership Council.

posted January 14, 2011 05:24 PM               

• 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.

"We had another great flight today, piloted by Mark Stucky and co-pilot Clint Nichols, a good start for what will be a busy year of flight tests," said George Whitesides, CEO and president of Virgin Galactic.

posted April 19, 2011 06:46 AM               

The Virgin America aircraft "My Other Ride Is a Spaceship" accompanied the SpaceShipTwo and its carrier into the airport.

Following the event (featuring amongst others, Richard Branson and Buzz Aldrin), WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo flew back to the Mojave base the following day.

posted April 23, 2011 03:06 AM               

The glide tests typically have a checklist of items that range from evaluating stability and control of SpaceShipTwo to maintaining pilot proficiency.

posted May 04, 2011 03:27 PM               

SpaceShipTwo's First "Feathered" Flight

Early on Wednesday 4th May 2011, in the skies above Mojave Air and Spaceport CA, SpaceShipTwo, the world's first commercial spaceship, demonstrated its unique reentry 'feather' configuration for the first time. This test flight, the third in less than two weeks, marks another major milestone on the path to powered test flights and commercial operations.

Credit: Clay Observatory/Virgin Galactic

SpaceShipTwo (SS2), named VSS Enterprise, has now flown solo seven times since its public roll-out in December 2009 and since the completion of its ground and captive -carry test program.

This latest flight saw a 6:43AM (local) runway take off for VSS Enterprise, attached to its WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft, VMS Eve. At the controls of the of the spaceship were Scaled Composites' test pilots Pete Siebold and Clint Nichols whilst Mark Stucky, Brian Maisler and Brandon Inks crewed the purpose built, all composite, twin fuselage WK2.

After a 45 minute climb to the desired altitude of 51,500 feet, SS2 was released cleanly from VMS Eve and established a stable glide profile before deploying, for the first time, its re-entry or "feathered" configuration by rotating the tail section of the vehicle upwards to a 65 degree angle to the fuselage. It remained in this configuration with the vehicle's body at a level pitch for approximately 1 minute and 15 seconds whilst descending, almost vertically, at around 15,500 feet per minute, slowed by the powerful shuttlecock-like drag created by the raised tail section. At around 33,500 feet the pilots reconfigured the spaceship to its normal glide mode and executed a smooth runway touch down, approximately 11 minutes and 5 seconds after its release from VMS Eve.

All objectives for the flight were met and detailed flight data is now being analysed by the engineers at Scaled Composites, designers and builders of Virgin Galactic's sub-orbital spacecraft.

George Whitesides, CEO and President of Virgin Galactic, said: "This morning's spectacular flight by VSS Enterprise was its third in 12 days, reinforcing the fast turnaround and frequent flight-rate potential of Virgin Galactic's new vehicles. We have also shown this morning that the unique feathering re-entry mechanism, probably the single most important safety innovation within the whole system, works perfectly. This is yet another important milestone successfully passed for Virgin Galactic, and brings us ever closer to the start of commercial operations. Credit is due to the whole Scaled team, whose meticulous planning and great skill are changing the course of history."

Pete Siebold, who along with Clint Nichols piloted the spaceship added: "In all test flight programs, after the training, planning and rehearsing, there comes the moment when you have to go up there and fly it for real. This morning's flight was a test pilot's dream. The spaceship is a joy to fly and the feathered descent portion added a new, unusual but wonderful dynamic to the ride. The fact that it all went to plan, that there were no surprises and that we brought VSS Enterprise back to Mojave safe and sound is a great testament to the whole team."

Wing Feathering for Re-Entry

Perhaps the most innovative safety feature employed by SpaceshipOne and now SpaceShipTwo is the unique way it returns into the dense atmosphere from the vacuum of space. This part of space flight has always been considered as one of the most technically challenging and dangerous and Burt Rutan was determined to find a failsafe solution which remained true to Scaled Composite's philosophy of safety through simplicity. His inspiration for what is known as the feathered re-entry was the humble shuttlecock, which like SpaceShipTwo relies on aerodynamic design and laws of physics to control speed and attitude.

Once out of the atmosphere the entire tail structure of the spaceship can be rotated upwards to about 65o. The feathered configuration allows an automatic control of attitude with the fuselage parallel to the horizon. This creates very high drag as the spacecraft descends through the upper regions of the atmosphere. The feather configuration is also highly stable, effectively giving the pilot a hands-free re-entry capability, something that has not been possible on spacecraft before, without resorting to computer controlled fly-by-wire systems. The combination of high drag and low weight (due to the very light materials used to construct the vehicle) mean that the skin temperature during re-entry stays very low compared to previous manned spacecraft and thermal protection systems such as heat shields or tiles are not needed. During a full sub-orbital spaceflight, at around 70,000ft following re-entry, the feather lowers to its original configuration and the spaceship becomes a glider for the flight back to the spaceport runway.

posted May 24, 2011 02:07 PM               

Stories circulated that engineers at Sierra Nevada Corporation were having a hard time scaling up the hybrid engine system from the small, X-1 sized SpaceShipOne prototype to its business jet sized successor. Oscillations sufficiently severe that nobody would want to ride the vehicle.

The stories have persisted and, if anything, have grown stronger. The latest one circulating in Mojave is that the test in March didn’t go well, and that the propulsion team has decided to abandon the hybrid rocket for a liquid system. There is also a confirmed report that Virgin Galactic has formed its own propulsion team and hired the former director of SpaceX’s Texas engine testing facility — and an expert in liquid propulsion — as a member of it.

posted June 10, 2011 12:53 PM               

Mark Sirangelo, head of Sierra Nevada Space Systems, the prime contractor for the SpaceShipTwo motors, told SPACE.com that progress is ongoing regarding development of the hybrid motor propulsion for the SpaceShipTwo program.

"Recently we conducted a firing of the motor which extended the burn duration by 30 percent and validated several of the important hardware systems," Sirangelo said. "We are preparing to shortly conduct another firing of the enhanced motor which will extend the burn duration and incorporate several additional important advances in the design.

This firing is expected to lead to final design of the motors for flight testing," he explained.

posted June 15, 2011 01:08 PM               

Two Flights in 24 hours for SpaceShipTwo

More exciting news from the Mojave Desert this morning with confirmation that SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise, had completed two successful glide flights within 24 hours.

This was the quickest turnaround time yet between VSS Enterprise solo flights, reinforcing the unique and transformational ability of Virgin Galactic's spaceflight system to undertake daily flights to space.

Both flights saw early morning take-offs for VSS Enterprise, in mated configuration with the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, followed by high altitude releases at around 52,000ft and glides back to smooth touch-downs on the Mojave Air and Spaceport runway. Both flights were part of a continuing program of envelope expansion, specifically focussing on speed and susceptibility for flutter.

This morning's flight was the 12th solo flight for SpaceShipTwo since its inaugural glide flight on 10th October 2010, including two successful "feather" flights which demonstrated the spaceship's unique re-entry configuration.

The quick turnaround between the latest two flights demonstrates an important factor in Virgin Galactic's planned commercial operations, which will see daily flights of both carrier aircraft and spaceship to accommodate the fast growing demand from both space tourists and researchers.

Congratulations to the whole team at Scaled Composites and particularly to SpaceShipTwo test pilots Pete Siebold, Doug Shane, Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols.

posted June 25, 2011 04:00 AM               

Another successful glide of the first SpaceShip Two craft, christened VSS Enterprise, took place June 23, marking the 14th glide flight test of the vessel — an 8-minute, 55-second free fall after midair release from its mothership. The test came a week after VSS Enterprise proved it could be flown on back-to-back days...

According to Virgin Galactic, all objectives of the fledgling spacecraft's recent test flights were met.

"Another good flight test for the program, on a beautiful Mojave morning," said George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic's CEO.

SpaceShipTwo testing is headed for a quiet period starting in July, as the Scaled team analyzes the data from the test flight program to date.

"This summer Scaled will be going through the data to make sure they apply any important lessons … to the next phase of test flights," Whitesides said. "We’re proceeding with the diverse set of tasks required to set up the spaceline, from planning spaceport operations to customer training procedures to ongoing business development."

• Flight: 67 / GF14
  
• Date: 23 Jun 11
  
• Flight Time: 7 min, 33 sec (1.6 hr for WK2)

• WK2 Pilot: Siebold
  WK2 CoPilot: Binnie
  WK2 FTE: Maisler

• SS2 Pilot: Stucky
  SS2 CoPilot: Nichols

• GS Crew: Tighe, Persall, Verderame, Bassett, Glaser, Reid, Knupp, Inks

• Objectives: Continued flutter susceptibility envelope expansion

• Results: All objectives achieved.

posted August 02, 2011 08:02 AM               

Mr Mackay has temporarily swapped his home for the Mojave Desert testing ranges in California taking test flights in Virgin's WhiteKnightTwo 'mothership'.

He spent 16 years with the RAF before joining Virgin Atlantic in 1995, working as a captain with Virgin Atlantic.

Mr Mackay is one of four pilots selected to become Virgin Galactic test pilots working with the development team at Virgin's Spaceport centre in the US.

posted September 02, 2011 07:38 AM               

Fire: 07
Date: 25 August 11

Objectives:
Perform seventh full scale flight design RM2 hot-fire
Continue all systems evaluation
Continue fuel formulation evaluation
Continue nozzle evaluation
Continue motor structural evaluation
Continue valve/injector performance evaluation

Results:
All objectives completed. Performed 55 second, full duration hot-fire, including igniter performance, oxidizer flow and pressurization systems, data acquisition system measurements, structural evaluation, nozzle ablation, and fuel regression rate data.

posted October 06, 2011 08:50 AM               

Flight: 73 / GF16
Date: 29 Sep 11 Flight Time: 7 min, 15 sec
SS2 Pilot: Stucky SS2 CoPilot: Nichols SS2 FTE: Persall
GS Crew: Alsbury, Verderame, Kalogiannis, Vannoy, Glasser, Reid, Inks, Tighe, Bassett

Objectives:
Post maintenance functional check flight
Clean release
Evaluate stability and control
Flutter expansion
Previous flutter point validation
Increased weight landing (using water ballast)
Pilot proficiency

Results:
Test card called for releasing the Spaceship from WhiteKnightTwo and immediately entering a rapid descent. Upon release, the Spaceship experienced a downward pitch rate that caused a stall of the tails. The crew followed procedure, selecting the feather mode to revert to a benign condition. The crew then defeathered and had a nominal return to base. Great flying by the team and good demo of feather system.