Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo
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This article contains information about a scheduled or anticipated future aircraft.
It may contain preliminary or speculative information, and may not reflect the final version of the aircraft.
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| SpaceShipTwo | |
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 Artist's concept of SpaceShipTwo at apogee |
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| Type | spaceplane |
| Manufacturer | Scaled Composites |
| Status | In production (65% complete as of May. 2008) |
| Developed from | SpaceShipOne |
SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is a suborbital spaceplane for carrying future space tourists that is currently under development by The Spaceship Company, a joint venture between Scaled Composites and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, as part of the Tier 1b program. The Virgin Galactic spaceline plans to operate a fleet of five of these craft in passenger-carrying private spaceflight service starting in late 2009, or early 2010.[1]
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[edit] Design and development
The SpaceShipTwo project is, in part, based on technology developed for SpaceShipOne as part of the Scaled Composites Tier One program, funded by Paul Allen. The Spaceship Company is licensing this technology from Paul Allen's Mojave Aerospace Ventures.
SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry passengers to space, the maximum capacity will be eight people: six paying passengers and two pilots. The apogee of the new craft will be approximately 110 km (68 miles) and in the thermosphere, 10 km (6 miles) higher than SpaceShipOne target, even though the last flight of the SpaceShipOne was at 112km. SpaceShipTwo will reach a speed of roughly 4200 km/h (2600 mph), using a single hybrid rocket motor, as can be seen on the technical diagram on the right. It will launch in midair at 15,200m (50,000ft) from its mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo. SpaceShipTwo's crew cabin will be 3.66m (12 ft) long and 2.28m (7.5 ft) in diameter. [2] The wing span is 8.23 m (27 ft), the length is 18.29 m (60 ft) and the tail height is 4.57 m (15 ft) [3].
SpaceShipTwo uses a feathered reentry system, feasible due to the low speed of re-entry — by contrast, space shuttles and other orbital spacecraft re-enter at orbital speeds, closer to 25000 km/h (16000 mph), requiring the use of heat shields. It is designed to reenter the atmosphere at any angle. "This vehicle is designed to go into the atmosphere in the worst case straight in or upside down and it'll correct.", says Burt Rutan. As for safety, he states "This is designed to be at least as safe as the early airliners in the 1920s. (...) Don't believe anyone that tells you that the safety will be the same as a modern airliner, which has been around for 70 years." [4].
Both SpaceShipTwo and its new carrier aircraft, White Knight Two (first craft called Eve after Richard Branson's mother [5] ), will be roughly two times the size of the first generation spacecraft SpaceShipOne and mothership White Knight that won the Ansari X Prize. SpaceShipTwo will have 43 cm and 33 cm (17 and 13 in) diameter windows for the passengers' viewing pleasure[3] Reportedly, the craft can land safely even if "catastrophic damage" occurs during the flight.[6]
[edit] Explosion
On 26 July 2007 a fatal explosion occurred at the Mojave airport during a fuel flow test which included filling the oxidizer tank with 4500 kg (10,000 pounds) of Nitrous Oxide followed by a 15 second cold flow injector test.[7] The explosion occurred around 14:30 (2:30 PM). Though the tests themselves did not involve igniting the gas, three employees were killed and three injured, two "critically" and one "seriously", from shrapnel wounds.[8]
[edit] Role of the carrier aircraft
Launch at altitude allows a larger, more efficient, yet cheaper first-stage nozzle. Its expansion ratio can be designed for low ambient air pressures, without risking flow separation and flight instability during low-altitude flight. The extra diameter of the high-altitude nozzle would be difficult to gimbal. But with reduced crosswinds, the fins can provide sufficient first-stage steering. This allows a fixed nozzle, which saves cost and weight versus a hot joint.
The rocket and gravity can be used to accelerate fast to make the rocket engine more efficient, and then the wings redirects the impulse upwards with an efficiency of about 0.9.
Additionally:
- The thin air does not heat up the vehicle due to friction at ascend
- Simpler abortion mode
- no blastproof pad, blockhouse, or associated equipment is needed
[edit] Commercial introduction
The design of the vehicle was revealed to the press in January 2008, with the statement that the vehicle itself was around 60% complete.[2]
In August 2005, the president of space tourism company Virgin Galactic stated that if the upcoming suborbital service with SpaceShipTwo is successful, the follow-up SpaceShipThree will be an orbital craft.[9]
On 28 September 2006, Sir Richard Branson unveiled a mock-up of the SpaceShipTwo at the NextFest exposition, held in the Javits Convention Center in New York.[10]
Training began on the 3rd of December 2007.[11]
According to Virgin Galactic, the construction of the flight hardware should be completed in 2008 and expected to take-off in late 2009 or 2010. [12] [13]
[edit] Spacecraft
Seven vehicles have been ordered by Virgin Galactic.[14] As of October 2007, only the first two have been named, the VSS (Virgin Space Ship) Enterprise,[15] and the VSS Voyager.[16] Both are in development.[17]
A proposed name for a third space ship, Columbia is planned, and other proposed space ship names such as Challenger, Atlantis and Discovery are also in consideration; all of which are former/current names of the soon-to-be retired Space Shuttles.
- VSS Enterprise [18] (2008)
- VSS Voyager [16] (2009)
- VSS Columbia (2009/2010)
- Not Named - unofficial Discovery (2010)
- Not Named (2011)
[edit] Flight
More than 65,000 would-be space tourists have applied for the first batch of 100 tickets to be available. The price will initially be US$200,000.[19] However, after the first 100 tickets are sold the deposit would be dropped to around $100,000. Then deposits after the first year will drop to around $20,000. The price for the near future is expected to remain at $20,000 per person per flight. The duration of the flight will be approximately 2.5 hours, and weekly launches are planned.
The number of craft constructed will naturally impact on the speed with which consumer demand can be satisfied. With only 3 craft, and assuming that they could be refitted after each flight with sufficient speed that one flight per ship per day was possible, the 65,000 applicants described above could be waiting up to 9.89 years for their flight (3 x 6 passengers per day, flying 365 days a year). If the venture is successful, it is therefore self-evident that substantially more craft (or more frequent flights) will be needed to meet demand.
In December 2007 Virgin Galactic had 200 paid-up applicants on its books for the early flights, and 95% were passing the necessary 6-8 g centrifuge tests.[20]
[edit] Launch site
The SpaceShipTwo craft will take off from the Mojave Spaceport in California during testing. Spaceport America (formerly Southwest Regional Spaceport), a $200 million spaceport in New Mexico partly funded by the state government, will become the permanent launch site when commercial launches begin.[2]
The company has also shown interest in building spaceports in other parts of the world, including Sweden, Saudi Arabia, and Scotland.[21] However, the likelihood of these other launching points depends on the success of the initial spaceport in New Mexico.
[edit] References
- ^ John Schwartz. New Tourist Spacecraft Unveiled. nytimes.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-23.
- ^ a b c Rob Coppinger. PICTURES: Virgin Galactic unveils Dyna-Soar style SpaceShipTwo design and twin-fuselage White Knight II configuration. flightglobal.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-23.
- ^ a b Virgin Galactic. Spaceship Unveil Presspack. virgingalactic.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
- ^ Dan Farber & Larry Dignan. Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo; Plans open architecture spaceship. zdnet.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
- ^ Spaceship Company unveils design of SpaceShipTwo. newsfromrussia.com (23.01.2008). Retrieved on 2008-01-25. Pravda
- ^ Peter de Selding. Virgin Galactic Customers Parting with Their Cash. Space News. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.
- ^ Report details deadly blast at Mojave spaceship builder test site. The Bakersfield Californian. Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
- ^ Abdollah, Tami and Silverstein, Stuart. Los Angeles Times. 27 July 2007. "3 killed, 3 injured in explosion at rocket test site in Mojave". Retrieved on 27 July 2007.
- ^ SpaceShipThree poised to follow if SS2 succeeds. Flight International (23 August 2005). Retrieved on 2007-04-06.
- ^ Sophie Morrison (30 September 2006). Buckled up for white knuckle ride. BBC News. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.
- ^ Virgin Galactic SIR RICHARD TRAINS FOR SPACEFLIGHT
- ^ {{afp (2008-01-25). Virgin's Branson presents new space ship. Retrieved on 2008-01-26.
- ^ afp (2008-01-25). Space travel set to take off. Retrieved on 2008-01-26.
- ^ Malik, Tariq (2008-01-23). Virgin Galactic Unveils Suborbital Spaceliner Design. SPACE.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-25.
- ^ Virgin Galactic to Offer Public Space Flights. SPACE.com (27 September 2004). Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
- ^ a b Wilson, Simon (2008-01-21). Will space tourism ever take off?. MoneyWeek. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
- ^ One small step for space tourism... Private spaceflight. The Economist (18 December 2004). Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
- ^ Scale comparison chart of Spaceshipone and Spaceshiptwo. Gizmodo. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.
- ^ Rich Chinese buying tickets to space. Zee News. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.
- ^ Anon. "Virgin Galactic's timetable for progress". Spaceflight (Volume 50, February 2008, page 48), British Interplanetary Society.
- ^ MPs urged to back space tourism. BBC News (21 February 2007). Retrieved on 2007-04-06.
[edit] External links
- Official site — Scaled Composites
- Formation of The Spaceship Company — space.com
- The Birth of SpaceShipTwo — SpaceDaily
- Virgin soars towards new frontier — BBC News
- Space or Bust: Feature article on space tourism — Cosmos Magazine
- What is Virgin Galactic? — Virgin Galactic
- Space Law in Paris — Space Law Probe
- Human spaceflight goes commercial — BBC News
- Videoblog of Wired NEXTFEST — People With Ideas
- CNET Images of SS2 mockups — CNET News
- NASA plans to hitch a lift on SpaceShipTwo — Flight International
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