Richard Branson (left in photo) and Burt Rutan (right in photo) yesterday unveiled the design of SpaceShipTwo and its mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo (behind them in photo), and announced that they may be ready for test flights this year. In a press conference at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, Branson said “2008 will really be the year of the spaceship.” They expect to start flying passengers into space in late 2009 or 2010.
Branson founded Virgin Galactic, a company that plans to enter the space tourism business in a big way: they already have firm reservations for 200 passengers, and $30 million in deposits (nearly 100 of those soon-to-be tourists were at the event yesterday). Virgin Galactic’s client liaison Stephen Attenborough, said that 80 of their customers have already been tested for their ability to withstand the high-G forces in a centrifuge ride. Of the 80—who included 88-year-old scientist James Lovelock—only two were unable to take the forces; the company asked three customers to put off flying.
Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn said the company hasn’t yet set a date for the beginning of commercial flights, which will depend not just on testing and manufacturing but also on government approval. “We don’t want to make promises that we can’t meet,” he said. “We’re in a race with nobody, apart from a race with safety.”
The spacecraft (artist’s conception at left) is a second-generation of the vehicle with which Rutan and his Scaled Composites, backed by Paul Allen, won the $10 million X-Prize in 2004. At that time, SpaceShipOne was carried to an altitude of about 50,000 feet by the twin-engined WhiteKnight. After the larger craft released it, SpaceShipOne fired its rocket engine to fly up to an altitude of 62 miles—into space. Once in space, its wings were able to “feather”, slowing it down enough to re-enter the atmosphere and then land like a glider. That vehicle was large enough to carry three people (though it flew with only one pilot and the equivalent weight of two others, to win the prize). SpaceShipTwo is twice as big as its progenitor: about 60 feet long, 15 feet high, and with a wing-span of 27 feet. It’s cabin is 12 feet long, seven and a half feet in diameter, and will carry two pilots and six passengers. WhiteKnightTwo is also larger than its predecessor: the twin-tail, twin-fuselage airplane has four jet engines. The airplane is about 70% complete, while the rocket is 60% complete.