from the down-to-earth-spaceship-testing dept.
On 3 December, Virgin Galactic made its first tentative return to space flight.
Virgin Galactic's new spaceship has made a successful first glide flight, a key step after a deadly crash of its predecessor two years ago, the spaceflight company said on Saturday.
The new SpaceShipTwo, dubbed VSS Unity, was hoisted aloft by carrier airplane WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve from the Mojave Air & Space Port in California, the company said on Twitter.
Released from the mothership, VSS Unity flew home to Earth on its own, according to the company owned by British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson.
"VSS Unity has landed. Vehicle and crew are back safe and sound after a successful first glide test flight," Virgin Galactic tweeted at #SpaceShipTwo.
Unity's weight was kept light for the first flight, Virgin Galactic said. Its success now opens a phase of tougher flight testing before the spacecraft's hybrid rocket motor will be fired in flight.
Related Stories
Virgin Galactic conducted its first test flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle in more than five months Jan. 11 as the company prepares to begin powered test flights of the vehicle.
The glide flight, conducted in the skies above the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, was the seventh for the second SpaceShipTwo, named VSS Unity, dating back to December 2016. Pilots Mark Stucky and Michael Masucci landed the vehicle at the airport after a successful flight.
The glide flight was the first for SpaceShipTwo since one in early August. The company said in a statement that it had spent the intervening months on "extensive analysis, testing and small modifications to ensure vehicle readiness for the higher loads and forces of powered test flight."
Virgin Galactic tested those modifications on the glide flight, as the pilots pushed the vehicle into a steep descent shortly after release from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, reaching a top speed of Mach 0.9. That is the fastest the vehicle can fly without igniting its hybrid rocket motor, according to the company.
This flight may be the last glide test before the vehicle begins powered test flights. "I think we'll probably do one more glide flight, and then we'll be ready to go into powered flight," George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said in a presentation at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Broomfield, Colorado, Dec. 18.
[...] Virgin Galactic's first SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise, was lost in an accident in a powered test flight in October 2014, the fourth for that vehicle. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board concluded the vehicle's co-pilot prematurely unlocked the feathering system for the vehicle that raises its tail for reentry, causing the vehicle to become aerodynamically unstable and break up as it passed through Mach 1. The investigation also blamed vehicle designers for not including safety systems that would have prevented the feathering system from being unlocked during that phase of flight.
Source: http://spacenews.com/spaceshiptwo-performs-glide-flight-in-advance-of-powered-tests/
Related:
- Virgin Galactic Spaceship Makes First Glide Flight
- Virgin Galactic moves on from crash, debuts flashy new spaceship
- Virgin Galactic Crash Due to Pilot Error and Design Flaws
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday December 05 2016, @03:21PM
I'm glad that it all went safely and smoothly this time.
I know this project is often derided as being a quick joyride to the upper atmosphere rather than a serious attempt at space travel, and that the "Galactic" moniker seems insanely hyperbolic, but does the work being done here have any potential applications to the "real" space industry? Might the technologies being developed for Branson eventually find their way into more serious projects?
I suppose at the very least, they are contributing to a healthy employment ecosystem for rocket surgeons and the like, which should help provide a good pool of talent to the likes of SpaceX to recruit from.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday December 05 2016, @03:23PM
What's more, they are contributing great things to the thus far very poorly represented field of spacecraft nose-art.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday December 05 2016, @05:17PM
but does the work being done here have any potential applications to the "real" space industry?
It's a relatively cheap way to get several continuous minutes of free fall. Apparently, free fall via airplane caps out at around 30 seconds per maneuver (though they can do a fair number of free fall maneuvers per flight). For example, there probably will be some application to the study of alloy and composite materials formation using materials of greatly differing densities.
So I think SpaceShipTwo has some potential to enable lower cost research which would support space-based industry.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @07:45PM
I don't think so. The Space Station can't even keep their experiment bays filled with any kind of decent microgravity experiment, and they give those rides away. The problem, as was pointed out by the president of the APS when Congress was deliberating whether to build another space station and the proponents were trying to use science as the driving factor, "micro-gravity is of micro-importance."
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 06 2016, @08:34AM
The Space Station can't even keep their experiment bays filled with any kind of decent microgravity experiment, and they give those rides away.
You're not looking at total cost of the experiment. The ride may be free, but the stay is not. Just having an astronaut touch your experiment can be quite expensive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @09:35PM
but does the work being done here have any potential applications to the "real" space industry?
It serves as a kick up the backside to the well-established players who have become lumbering dinosaurs.
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Monday December 05 2016, @03:47PM
I'm glad there are people willing to pay to risk their lives to further this industry. I personally, will wait until it's cheaper, not just because the cost is currently prohibitive, but because of the risk. When it's cheaper, it will be more normalized, and likely substantially safer. I expect there to be a point in the future where space travel is as safe as air travel.
Of the less than 600 [wikipedia.org] people who have gone to space or attempted, about 30 have died in training or during a mission. Not great odds so far.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday December 05 2016, @07:23PM
> When it's cheaper, it will be more normalized, and likely substantially safer.
I get your point, but I ain't getting the $99.95 Lasik special at the mall.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @05:31PM
72?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday December 05 2016, @10:09PM
That was quite unwarranted.
You should have asked yourself whether it can still be considered a virgin, after that blow-job.
Account abandoned.