Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin family of companies, and Burt Rutan, head of Scaled Composites, are set to unveil SpaceShipTwo around sunset today at the Mojave Air and Spaceport. The follow-on to the prize-winning SpaceShipOne, SS2 is planned to be the first in a fleet of commercial spacecraft which Branson’s Virgin Galactic will operate to take tourists into space. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson are expected to be on hand to actually christen the ship VSS Enterprise (VSS stands for “Virgin Space Ship”). According to Virgin Galactic, the name was chosen “in honour of a long tradition of using the word Enterprise in the naming of Royal Navy, US Navy, NASA vehicles, and even science fiction spacecraft.… This represents not only an acknowledgement to that name’s honorable past but also looks to the future of the role of private enterprise in the development of the exploration, industrialisation, and human habitation of space.”
Branson and Rutan previously unveiled WhiteKnightTwo, which they called “Eve” (in honor of Branson’s mother, see this article). That twin-fuselaged, four-engine aircraft will be the mother ship for SS2, lifting the smaller rocket 60,000 feet before releasing the craft for its rocket engines to fire. SS2, then, will rocket its passengers and crew into space.
Larger than SpaceShipOne (which carried a one-man crew), SS2 is built to carry up to two pilots and six passengers on a sub-orbital flight. While the body of SS2 is being revealed, Virgin Galactic does note that “SS2 will be powered by a unique hybrid rocket motor, which is currently under development.”
Commenting on the unveiling, Branson said “This is truly a momentous day. The team has created not only a world first but also a work of art. The unveil of SS2 takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level and continues to provide tangible evidence that this ambitious project is not only moving rapidly, but also making tremendous progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation.”
Rutan added “All of us at Scaled are tremendously excited by the capabilities of both the mothership and SS2. Today is the culmination of a dream that began many decades ago, was stimulated by Paul Allen’s funding of our X-Prize winning SS1 and then moved forward to commercial reality by Sir Richard and Virgin’s visionary investment in a new future for space transportation.”
Virgin Galactic reports that more than 300 people have already signed up (and paid deposits) to fly into space and experience weightlessness aboard their spacecraft.
CNN has a brief article, along with a five-minute video interview with Branson, at this link.
The upper photo shows VSS Enterprise slung between the fuselages of WK2 Eve. The lower photo is a close-up of the nose of the first SpaceShipTwo, bearing the name Enterprise. Both photos are by Ned RocknRoll, courtesy of Virgin Galactic.
Related articles previously published by SFScope:
Branson and Rutan unveil WhiteKnightTwo (29 July 2008)
SpaceShipTwo more than half complete; soon to fly passengers into space (24 January 2008)