SpaceShipTwo successfully completed its third powered test flight today.
The competition heats up: SpaceShipTwo successfully completed its third powered test flight today.
On release, SS2’s rocket motor was ignited, powering the spaceship to a planned altitude of 71,000 ft. – SS2’s highest altitude to date – and a maximum speed of Mach 1.4. SS2’s unique feather re-entry system was also tested during today’s flight. Two important SS2 systems, the RCS [reaction control system] and thermal protection coating, were tested during today’s flight in preparation for upcoming full space flights. The spaceship’s RCS will allow its pilots to maneuver the vehicle in space, permitting an optimal viewing experience for those on board and aiding the positioning process for spacecraft re-entry. The new reflective protection coating on SS2’s inner tail boom surfaces is being evaluated to help maintain vehicle skin temperatures while the rocket motor is firing.
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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The competition heats up: SpaceShipTwo successfully completed its third powered test flight today.
On release, SS2’s rocket motor was ignited, powering the spaceship to a planned altitude of 71,000 ft. – SS2’s highest altitude to date – and a maximum speed of Mach 1.4. SS2’s unique feather re-entry system was also tested during today’s flight. Two important SS2 systems, the RCS [reaction control system] and thermal protection coating, were tested during today’s flight in preparation for upcoming full space flights. The spaceship’s RCS will allow its pilots to maneuver the vehicle in space, permitting an optimal viewing experience for those on board and aiding the positioning process for spacecraft re-entry. The new reflective protection coating on SS2’s inner tail boom surfaces is being evaluated to help maintain vehicle skin temperatures while the rocket motor is firing.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Q: What do you suppose the pilot and the co pilot will be paid for each flight, this being a commercial and not a military / government endeavor?
I’m sure they are on salary.
If that were true I would think a salary with an established bonus per flight. I think this lies just a bit outside of the norm.
After they run out of rich people willing to buy tickets, what is the long-term use of this vehicle?
Define long term. There are a lot of rich people who want to be able to say they went into space. At any realistic flight schedule, it will take years to get them all there. A number of them will also want to go more than once. So I think Branson and company will have plenty of work once this thing (pun alert) takes off.
A large number of scientists and engineers have expressed interest in using SpaceShip2 and XCore’s Lynx for short-duration microgravity research. XCore seems to think that such research may be half of their business. I don’t think that these companies will have any shortage of paying customers until prices for orbital launches come way, way down.
And by then, they may have developed their own orbital launch vehicles and *still* be the launch companies of choice.
We should try our best to eliminate the myth that the majority of Virgin Galactic’s customers are rich and/or famous.
There’s plenty of ordinary people who dream of flying into space and have taken not so extraordinary means to buy themselves a ticket. VG started accepting bookings in 2005, requiring a $20k deposit. The balance requires only $20k/year to be saved, which is well within the means of many average people.
Now, if only someone would start flying them…
I don’t think having them on salary would be outside the norm.
The pilots could be around for all aspects of maintenance and building of the craft. They would then have as much input as possible into the features they want.
Not all pilots want things exactly the same in every cockpit and being able to tell them them he would like the altimeter on the left instead of the right does have its advantages to many pilots.
They might not even be required to be there everyday and they might have other full time jobs in the airline industry.
And having them on salary is not that much compared to the overall cost of the whole program.
Lets just say there is nothing outside the norm in an industry that if pretty much totally outside the norm.