![]() ![]() The craft will then separate for the trip into space by firing its engines for about 70 seconds and then shutting them off for the final coast up to 62 miles (100 km) above Earth. When it begins commercial flights, SpaceShipTwo will carry six passengers and fly to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) in altitude while attached to the bottom of WhiteKnightTwo. (Image credit: Virgin Galactic/Mark Greenberg) How commercial flights will work ![]() Nearby is the WhiteKnightTwo mated with SpaceShipTwo. ( The first NASA space shuttle was also named Enterprise it was only used for glide tests and never made it into space.)Ī number of Virgin Galactic's future astronauts gathered with Sir Richard Branson (center) for a group photo at Virgin Galactic's Final Assembly, Integration and Test Hangar (FAITH) in Mojave, Calif. The first SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise, was unveiled in December 2009 it was named after the famous "Star Trek" spacecraft, the USS Enterprise. The first WhiteKnightTwo, Eve, completed its first successful test flight before the end of 2008. In July 2008, Virgin Galactic held a major launch event to showcase WhiteKnightTwo, a dual-fuselage carrier aircraft with four jet engines which would carry SpaceShipTwo into the sky. As a result, work was suspended as the company investigated the cause of the accident. In addition to the fatalities, multiple employees were injured during the test. The accident sent shockwaves through the company and the commercial spaceflight community. The company rolled out several construction milestones in the next year, but the momentum halted in 2007 after a fatal fire during a routine ground test killed three Scaled Composites employees. Virgin Galactic established its global headquarters and spaceflight operations there. In December 2005, the state of New Mexico took on Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant at Spaceport America, a taxpayer-funded, $225 million facility. (Image credit: Karl Tate, contributor) Spacecraft development and setbacks See how Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo works in this infographic. SpaceShipTwo will carry six passengers up past 328,000 feet altitude (100 kilometers), the point where astronaut wings are awarded. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |