SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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.
(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.