Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo: the video unveiling

You've already engrossed yourself in the media reports stemming from Mojave Spaceport, but if you've been hunting high and low for a few good frames of the SpaceShipTwo unveiling, look no further. Our homeslices over at Gadling were on hand for the event, and they did the honors of filming the introduction as well as the craft's first public movements. Hit that source link for a look, and be sure to check your pulse if you aren't feeling inspired when the credits roll.

[Spartan001 Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:17PM]

Boss!

[MrT Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:30PM]

You called? foo

[Prospero Posted Dec 11th 2009 8:01AM]

@Spartan001

Rock on Mr Brandson!

[N900 Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:19PM]

Woah.

[Phoenix Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:25PM]

@N900

x2

[Cheesus Crust Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:15PM]

@Phoenix x3

[Shandy Posted Dec 10th 2009 10:09PM]

@N900

Yeah this is quite inspiring. Why only two minutes and where are the HIGH RES PICTURES!!!!

[jeremiah2man Posted Dec 11th 2009 1:27AM]

@Shandy I'm with ya on that one.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 12th 2009 2:07AM]

@Shandy There's a link to high res pictures just below the video..it's in a different article

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 12th 2009 2:08AM]

@Shandy There's a link to high res pictures just below the video..it's in a different article

[saturnblackhole Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:23PM]

for some reason i thought it said battle star galactica but alas it does not.

[kris120890 Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:24PM]

@saturnblackhole
I was thinking about Galactica while watching the video

[Maverick128 Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:33PM]

@saturnblackhole Even better. It's called Enterprise.

[rob40wilson03 Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:23PM]

so much win

[Sieg Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:25PM]

Sign me up ^.^

[Hotrod Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:26PM]

What's the benefit of this? Anyone know?

[Hotrod Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:28PM]

@Hotrod Never mind, I RTFA (linked) and now it makes sense. Very cool.

[buoy Posted Dec 11th 2009 1:06AM]

@Hotrod if airliners fly at higher altitudes, = lower wind resistence = can fly faster speeds = less fuel used overall = less strain on the aircraft overall.

when applied to conventional aircraft. beats the heck out of flying supersonic in the atmosphere ... *cough* concorde *cough*.

[ch3burashka Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:28PM]

The result of incestuous plane sex. Heed this as a warning, all you planes out there.

[devron Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:36PM]

Not to be the turd in the punch bowl and all....(and I know Richard Branson is the man and all, but....)..... does....not....look....safe. Looks completely unbalanced.

[awfulwaffle Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:55PM]

@devron Thank God devron is here to notify them of their engineering blunder!

[jsafavi Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:11PM]

@devron
you r right !
it does not look safe at all.
its not about the looks i guess

[LilCoop2 Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:31PM]

@devron - IMO... I kind of agree w/devron on this one. I'm not speculating that it is *not* safe, but just that it does not *look* safe.

[devron Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:32PM]

@awfulwaffle
Hey - I'm no engineer... and haven't been following this enough to say how safe it is... (for all I know, it could be safer than a standard jet.) But I just wouldn't want to be in this during any hard spells of turbulence... that's all I'm saying.....

I hope the three cabins can somehow fly separately, cause I totally see em snapping off.

[tmarks11 Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:35PM]

@devron Branson didn't design the dang thing.

Burt Rutan has been designing and building radical planes his entire life. Very experienced. Google him.

He has several planes hanging in the Smithsonian Annex near National Airport in DC. Cool stuff. I have been drooling over his planes since I was a kid. Which was 30 years ago.

[Wwhat Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:17PM]

Reminds me of the P-38:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-38_Lightning

[kLid Posted Dec 11th 2009 1:23AM]

@tmarks11
Yeah i was invited to his presentation here once and Burt sure knows what he's doing. I wouldn't doubt his skills when it comes to anything that flies.

I sure wanna try this one day =]

[GGG Posted Dec 11th 2009 5:25AM]

@devron

well yeah obviously the middle one separates from everything else and flies to space

[Black Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:53PM]

Good start. Still it only runs at just 4000 km/h top speed. You need 30.000 km/h to become a natural satellite and ... well.. stay in space the way the space shuttle does, so there is still work to be done :D.

Nonetheless, the element of awesomeness cannot be ignore. Very nice!

[Dustin F Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:02PM]

@Black

Yeah, it will take a lot to get to 17.5k mph. But then, this is much , much safer than that. The forces on this craft are exponentially less. For someone who wants to go up real real high into space and see the round Earth with their naked eyes, this is BETTER than a space shuttle in many respects. Of course, the main respect is that this is feasible by a private company.

I hope they get rich doing this.

[LilCoop2 Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:42PM]

@(Unverified) "Get" rich doing this??? Um, this dude owns his own island! lol I'm sure funding this was but a drop in the bucket for him... I dunno, perhaps you were aiming for sarcasm.

But yeah - I wish I could live his life... Must be nice.

[Wwhat Posted Dec 11th 2009 2:01PM]

@Black
28000 I think it was.

[Jyber Posted Dec 10th 2009 5:55PM]

I don't think you can be any richer then when you get your own fricking space program... and 2 spaceships

[jsafavi Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:13PM]

what did Arnold say ? I can't hear it. its not clear !!

[NinjaMonkey Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:21PM]

@(Unverified)
I was waiting for some moron to mention apple or crysis. You won!

[SalsaMan Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:22PM]

Wow...
... and loved the seat labels "Future Astronaut".

... and loved Arnold's joke about how his fellow governer will be enjoying the weightlessness LOL.

[jafoman Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:23PM]

This is really cool... Here are my photos of the WhiteKnightTwo, the launch platform for the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jafopix/tags/whiteknighttwo/

[Maverick128 Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:35PM]

Shouldn't there be a Star Trek or Enterprise tag seeing as it's named the VSS Enterprise?

[Quetzalcoatl Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:14PM]

@Maverick128
I think it's USS not VSS

[JeremyBenthem Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:18PM]

@Quetzalcoatl
it's VSS not USS

[Maverick128 Posted Dec 10th 2009 11:32PM]

@Quetzalcoatl SpaceShipTwo is VSS. Star Trek's is USS. I know that, but the VSS was actually named after the USS. (They mention the sailing ships as well, but an earlier article about Virgin Galactic stated it was Gene Roddenberry's ship they was honoring.)

Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn said this, "It was the name of the first [NASA] space shuttle, and it has dominated science fiction as a kind of watchword for human spaceflight in the future." The space shuttle was also named after the fictional starship.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091208-virgin-galactic-spaceship-enterprise-branson.html

They actually plan on naming the second one Voyager.

[psychoace Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:04PM]

Hasn't there been pictures of this for awhile now? Why has it yet taken a flight to outer space? Are they just showing it right now in hopes to get more funding because in actuality it still needs a lot more work? I would say do this kinda stuff after it has reached outer space and celebrate it then.

[Quetzalcoatl Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:09PM]

DEATH TRAP!!! x__X

[IBneel Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:20PM]

suddenly, I want the UFP more than ever.

[danw635 Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:24PM]

Thats it? You build a spaceship and only bring me a two minute video! Gah

[p0p0 Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:22PM]

"Enterprise"? They really needed to name it "Enterprise"?

Hmmm... "Enterprise, brought to you by Virgin. Go where no man has gone before."

Double entendre!

[Banksta3 Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:28PM]

What happens if you have 2 or 3 independently acting Hi-Jackers all with different agendas and they each take a cockpit? Choas.

[Banksta3 Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:28PM]

So this is what they did with the money Sprint gave them...

[ASA Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:34PM]

I was there and I am one of the Accredited Space Agents (licensed to sell the flights on behalf of Virgin Galactic).

Cruise to 55000ft get dropped by White knight 2 ignite rocket fo r55 seconds then unclick your seat belt at 360.000 ft, float around for 4+ minutes and see mother earth from above....so worth the $$

[ASA Posted Dec 10th 2009 7:47PM]

@Looonyz $200.000US $20K down will get you in line. I recon about 400 people now have paid their deposits (fully refundable)

200k is cheap compared to $22800 round trip LAX to Dubai on a commercial Airliner