First spy shot of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo surfaces
By Darren Murph 
posted Jun 23rd 2008 1:00PM
posted Jun 23rd 2008 1:00PM
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The originality utilized for the naming scheme is just amazing.
I can't wait to see CellPhoneOne. Followed close by.... wait for it... CellPhoneTwo. It says Virgin on it too, so it's only a matter of time, right?
Right. They definitely need to spend the money to come up with different name to set them apart from all the other companies ready to take people into sub-orbit.
Spaceship 2 spy photos are nice, but what I am really looking forward to is the next SpaceX Falcon 1 launch, which could happen as early as Wednesday.
not till july 29:
http://twitter.com/NanoSail_D
also that maybe the white knight two cockpit, since it and spaceshiptwo have identical designs.
I flew a Bd-5J acrostar a couple times. I'd love to get my hands on one of these.
for some reason this picture does not inspire confidence in the build quality of this consumer spaceship.
Don't know why.
I love that a regular pickup truck and dudes in hoodies are transporting it. Very exciting.
That said, you'd have to hold a gun to my head to get me to fly in it when it's built. I can't believe people are paying an arm and a leg for it.
Something about carting the nose/cockpit of a spacecraft around on the back of a flatbed truck strikes me as..."odd"
How would you do it? On the backs of a couple hundred slaves in loincloths? Would you build a truck that looks like a spaceship just to cart around spaceship pieces?
Use the right tool for the job. Screwing in a screw? A screwdriver! Trucking something large from point A to point B? Why, a truck!
No, actually nobody needed to bring it up.
Has anyone else noticed that this nose doesn't match the design from the model? The front on this is more "snubbed" than the model's "pointed" nose.
That, along with the hoodie patrol, do make me wonder if this is even legit.
Just a thought...
I think the nose is a seperate section. As for the hoodies, I'm assuming this picture was taken months ago, or very early in the morning, because it's gotta be 150 degrees during the day in mojave right now.
@Josh: Usually with a normal commercial plane they put on another cap in the front of the actual cockpit "shell", housing some radar gear. I guess it'll be the same for the SpaceShipTwo.
The design is rounded as much as possible as the cabin area is pressurised. The curved nose is essentially the forward pressure bulkhead and extra aerodynamic fairings perhaps containing thrust vectoring or avionics will most likely be added as a 'pointy nose'.
Please enjoy your flight on our new spacecraft that was built by the lowest bidder.
yeah... its called NASA...
contracting out jobs to the lowest bidder in the federal sector is nothing new so why would you be suprised that it happens in the commercial sector
That was my point...actually...
If one can snag a photo of this thing so easily, how they gonna make sure security is top notch so no one messes with this thing?
I was not expecting a convertible model. Gutsy for space travel, but I like it.
Ha! You sir, get voted up. Thanks for my first post-lunch chuckle.
Nicely done. My thought was "I expected it to be bigger."
The lamest thing is you are actually trying to be a troll, please give up on life now.
You have to hand it to Branson. The only way to one-up a guy who owns his own spaceship is to say you own your own wookie.
Hey MeatPop, people actually do that, and it's never as funny when it happens as it was when you suggested it. Yeah, trolls suck. SO WHAT!
GET A SOUL AND STOP RECOMMENDING SUICIDE TO PEOPLE!
This spaceship sucks, it doesnt have any of the great apps from the itunes store.
The node is exactly like the ship in their photos. There is an additional pointy nose cone that fits over the rounded nose of the body.
its not looking much like an intergalactic rocket ship to me.
will this get frikin laser beam?
I thought there had been photos of the factory showing the ships under construction, previous to this.