“We’re building spacecraft, not bizjets.”
The real future: “We’re building spacecraft, not bizjets.”
The real future: “We’re building spacecraft, not bizjets.”
The real future: “We’re building spacecraft, not bizjets.”
SpaceShipTwo completes two glide test flights within twenty-four hours.
Scaled Composites continues to ramp up the test flight program of SpaceShipTwo. More here.
An evening pause: Video of the May 10 test flight of SpaceShipTwo. “Now we can come back from space.”
Another successful test flight of SpaceShipTwo took place on Tuesday. Via Clark Lindsey.
SpaceShipTwo’s has successfully completed its first “feathered” flight.
After a 45 minute climb to the desired altitude of 51,500 feet, SpaceShip2 (SS2) was released cleanly from VMS Eve [WhiteKnightTwo] 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.
New Space: Sierra Nevada plans to drop test its Dream Chaser spaceplane in 2012 using Scaled Composites’ WhiteKnightTwo.
Scaled Composites is ramping up the test rate for SpaceShipTwo.