Flight Tests of Virgin Galactic’s New Space Plane Could Start Early Next Year

Hard to believe , but it ’s been one class sinceSpaceShipTwo disintegrated during a test trajectory , down one pilot and seriously wound the other . Undaunted by the catastrophe , Virgin Galactic has been hard at work ramp up the 2d version of the suborbital rocket plane — a slightly modified translation that may at long last usher in the epoch of space tourism .

Version two of Virgin Galactic ’s SpaceShipTwo , which is yet unidentified , is currently being fabricate at a hanger in California ’s Mohave desert . As companionship founder Richard BransontoldMashable , they should be unveiling a complete spacecraft sometime around February 2016 , after which time “ we go into flight tests . ” It ’s a solid signboard that Virgin Galactic , just a year after the incident , is , in the words of Branson , “ very much back on lead . ”

Indeed , things did n’t look good in the aftermath of the catastrophe . It was n’t immediately obvious if Virgin would continue , or whether Richard Branson would brave out the flurry of criticism , including allegement of hubris and foolhardiness . It also did n’t avail that he tried to distance Virgin from Scaled Composites , who provide the trial run pilots . Clearly , the company is once again look to the future and are hop-skip to put this incident behind it .

Starship Test 9

To prevent a similar fortuity from happening again , Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composite decorator are equipping the new space plane with a mechanism that will prevent the previous deployment of its braking feathers . Last yr , VSS Enterprise broke - up during the ascent phase after co - pilot Michael Alsbury — who died in the accident — moved a lever tumbler in the cockpit to unlock the empennage featherstoo early in the flight , get the ship to disintegrate . The unexampled gadget should significantly mitigate the opportunity for pilot mistake .

In addition to this characteristic and a Modern ass design , the Galactic Team is continuing to refine the space plane ’s rocket fuel mixture . The new rocket plane , which is the first to be built by Virgin subsidiaryThe Spaceship Company(TSC ) , will be tryout - fly by Virgin Galactic pilot light , rather than Scaled Composite buffer . Other than that , not much has shift .

“ The airframe itself we think is wakeless , and the actuation arrangement is sound , ” noted Virgin Galactic principal executive George Whitesides at an ISPCS group discussion last month . “ We required very few alteration to the vehicle following our psychometric test flight stroke . ”

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Artistic impression of LaucherOne ( Credit : Virgin Galactic )

Work is also scaling - up on Virgin Galactic ’s LauncherOne programme , which is designed to rescue small satellites into orbit . Virgin is presently browse for a fresh LauncherOne aircraft newsboy , and it ’s equip the two - stage rocket with a bigger fuel cooler . That should increase its load capacity from 264 pounds ( 120 kg ) to 440 pounds ( 200 kg ) .

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