Virgin Galactic Shows the Finished WhiteKnight Two

[birrddog]

http://spacefellowship.com/News/?p=6155

(Added: It may take a while or few attempts to download - very popular link as you can imagine)

[Agaricus bisporus]

Hmm. maybe.

Gave up after 3 minutes. You'd think that with the ability to put tourists into space they'd stretch their technology to a website that works...

:confused:

[El Grifo]

YEP !!! Same here :bored:

Makes you bloody wonder dunnit ???

[captain_flynn]

Theres some pics here...

Virgin Galactic (http://www.virgingalactic.com/)

Where do they plan to operate from?

[archae86]

The press release on the Scaled Composites site viewed promptly for me:

Scaled press release (http://www.scaled.com/projects/ttop/press_release.pdf)

That in turn points to a Virgin Galactic press page with multiple pictures I've not seen before

Virgin Galactic press page (http://www.virgingalactic.com/press)

With my browser, clicking on the thumbnails at the top of the VG page displayed images, while clicking on the name image links lower in the page brought up an offer to download a tiff image.

[edited to acknowledge that captain_flynn finished posting while I was typing]

[soddim]

That aircraft does not look right. It might be a triumph on the drawing board but it looks like a nightmare in the flesh. In my experience if it looks right it's alright - this does not.

[marlowe]

Is there an RJ/146 somewhere minus its engines? look like they were liffted of off one!!!!!!!!!

[Blink182]

thats a hell'uva towbar !

[birrddog]

Can be found at First Look at Virgin Galactic's New Mothership, WhiteKnightTwo | Wired Science from Wired.com (http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/virgin-galact-1.html).

captain_flynn, I can't say for sure but afaik New Mexico is the only registered civilian space port in the US. More info at Spaceport America (http://www.spaceportamerica.com/)

Looking at the picture on the front page with the aircraft with Virgin decals I'd say that would be a good guess ;)

Space Adventures (the company that sent the first private cosmonauts to space, and soon to the moon) have their own vehicle and space ports they are working on. Link below. Looks like they are planning to operate from (nearby) Dubai and Singapore.

Space Adventures : Details (http://www.spaceadventures.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=suborbital.Details)

Unlike Virgin Galactic, their website works :ugh:

[glad rag]

Works ok at 23:20 in southern france

What an amazing project hoho it's going to be an interesting time for sure!:ok:

[captain_flynn]

Many thanks for the info, birrddog.:ok:

[Lower Hangar]

I agree with the earlier poster - they've lifted a set of LF502/507 pylons and engines from one of many parked in the desert -so that will presumably limit launch ceiling to something less that 30K - is that enough ??

[Just a spotter]

Video of the launch on the BBC web site.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Branson unveils space tourism jet (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7529978.stm)

Engine has silhouettes of (and I'm guessing here) Icarus, Wright Flyer, Ryan NYP ("Spirit of St. Louis"), Bell X-1, A380 (could be a 747?), Apollo Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), Space Ship One and itself with Space Ship Two.

All done with a backdrop of a Virgin America A320. Never one to miss an marketing opportunity Mr. B.

JAS

[Rainboe]

I think soddim has hit the nail on the head. I think there are serious shortcomings and errors in this design. I'd even put my neck on the line and say the final design will have significant differences. There are things frighteningly not right here- I would be surprised if this thing gets through its development without a serious crackup. This thing is deadly.

[deltayankee]

Does look a bit like a scrapheap challenge.

Does anyone know where the crew sit? Or do they sit in separate cabins? And how does the nosewheel steering work? Must be hard for pilots to remember not to follow the runway centerline!