Privately Built SpaceShipTwo Passes Tests With FlyingColors

The private space plane SpaceShipTwo lands after a successful glide test June 21 at Mojave Air andSpace Port in California. (Bill Deaver/Deaver-Wiggins and Associates)

SpaceShipTwo, a privately built rocket plane designed to take tourists on suborbital flights,continues to chalk up more flight time as it glides through the skies over the Mojave Air and SpacePort in California.

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

The two-pilot SpaceShipTwo is designed to rocket six paying passengers hair chalking on asuborbital trajectory to space without making a full orbit around the Earth. The ride to the edge ofspace will come at a per-seat price of $200,000.

The spaceship was designed and built by the firm Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic, thecommercial space company founded by British entrepreneur and adventurer Sir Richard Branson.[Photos: SpaceShipTwo's First Solo Glide Flight] VSS Enterprise is the first of five commercialsuborbital spacecraft being constructed for Virgin Galactic by Scaled Composites.

Free falling

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

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

"This is what Scaled is so good at: flying, testing, and learning in a rapid cycle of innovation. Thehigh flight rate is a positive indication of the vehicles' ability to fly frequently and safely," he toldSPACE.com.

SpaceShipTwo testing is headed for a quiet period starting in July, as the Scaled team analyzes thedata 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 tasksrequired to set up the spaceline, from planning spaceport operations to customer trainingprocedures to ongoing business development."

Fast turnaround

The test followed another milestone for SpaceShipTwo June 14 and 15: two successful glide flightswithin 24 hours.

"This was the quickest turnaround time yet between VSS Enterprise solo flights, reinforcing theunique and transformational ability of Virgin Galactic's spaceflight system to undertake daily flightsto space," Virgin Galactic said in a statement.

The June 14-15 flights saw early-morning takeoffs for VSS Enterprise in mated configuration withthe WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, followed by high-altitude releases at around 52,000 feet(15,800 meters) and glides back to smooth touchdowns on the Mojave Air and Space Port runway.[Video: SpaceShipTwo Passes Re-Entry System Test]

Both flights were part of a continuing program of envelope expansion, specifically focusing on speedand susceptibility for flutter.

Virgin Galactic sees the quick turnaround between flights as an important factor in its plannedcommercial operations: daily flights of both carrier aircraft and spaceship, to accommodate thesystem's use by both space tourists and researchers.

Campaign of piloted glide tests

Since its public rollout in December 2009, SpaceShipTwo has undergone a campaign of piloted glidetests, including two "feathered" flights - involving a configuration in which the rocket plane rotatedits tail section upwards to a 65-degree angle to the fuselage.

That novel feathered feature is key to flights in which the craft will return into the dense atmospherefrom the vacuum of space. Following re-entry from a full suborbital spaceflight at around 70,000 feet(21,000 meters), the feather lowers to its original configuration and the spaceship becomes a gliderfor the flight back down to a spaceport runway.

SpaceShipTwo has been put through an ever-expanding set of shakeout objectives, starting with itsmaiden free flight on Oct. 10, 2010.

Future flight manifest

On the future flight manifest is a test run using a hybrid motor mounted within SpaceShipTwo. Thatpowerhouse engine is being crafted by Sierra Nevada Corp. Short bursts to ever-longer burns of themotor in-flight are being planned, with the date of the first in-flight firing of the motor still to bedetermined.

The VSS Enterprise test flight program will continue through 2011.

Commercial operations will be based at Virgin Galactic's future headquarters at Spaceport Americain New Mexico.

* SpaceShipTwo: How Virgin Galactic Could Rule the Galaxy

* SpaceShipTwo's First Solo Glide Flight

* Vote Now! The Best Spaceships of All Time

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