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Virgin really, really wants you to keep saving up those frequent flyer miles
The ad above seems to be implying that we'll all soon be able to put our frequent flyer miles toward one of Virgin Galactic's super-expensive space tourist flights. Of course, it's pretty vague, and we're not going to get overly excited about it since we've barely ever saved up enough miles to get to Pittsburgh, but hey -- anything that encourages us to believe we can achieve goals previously reserved for Moby and Sigourney Weaver is fine with us.[Thanks, Brian]
Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo successfully completes brief maiden flight
It was short and mildly sweet, but Virgin Galactic has a lot to be relieved about. The outfit -- which is vigorously attempting to make space tourism a reality for the affluent -- saw its long-awaited WhiteKnightTwo craft complete an hour long maiden flight above its Mojave headquarters. If you'll recall, we were expecting the craft to take flight in September, though we can't say that a three month delay is all that unforgivable given the nature of the task. We suspect Buzz Lightyear would have an excellent closer for this one, so we'll just let you all imagine what quip he'd share.[Via Slashdot]Update: Video just surfaced of the WhiteKnightTwo up to its chivalrous antics, including landing and takeoff. No loop de loops or interstellar travel, sadly.[Thanks, Disco Stu]
Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo spaceship carrier gets unveiled
It looks like the Mojave Desert is once again the center of the private space industry, with Richard Branson and crew on hand to unveil Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo spaceship carrier as promised. This craft (only the first of more that are promised) has been named EVE (after Branson's mother) and, with a 140-foot wingspan, it's apparently now officially the largest all carbon-composite aircraft ever made. Eventually, it'll be used to help carry the yet-to-be-completed SpaceShipTwo craft in orbit although, as Burt Rutan himself tells Space.com, that's still a little ways off, with him saying that while could be ready to go after just 40 tests flights, they'll likely do a few more than that for good measure. Head on past the break for a few more pics.Read - Space.com, "Virgin Galactic Unveils Space Liner Mothership "Read - Wired Science, "First Look at Virgin Galactic's New Mothership, WhiteKnightTwo"
WhiteKnightTwo to be unveiled on Monday, space to seem less far away
Hold onto your dollar bills, y'all -- the WhiteKnightTwo is set to be unveiled (and swooned over) on Monday. We knew the fabled space tourism vehicle was set to be unwrapped this month, but knowing that said event is merely hours away just gets our juices flowin'. Richard Branson and "other dignitaries" are preparing to officially launch the ship at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California (a short drive from Zzyzx, we hear), and we're still being led to believe that test flights should begin as early as this fall. Hey, at least you know what you're doing next year if your ship comes in.[Via The Register]
First spy shot of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo surfaces
It's not often that we get to cover spy shots here at Engadget, but we're as giddy as school children about this one. The SpaceShipTwo design was officially rolled out in January, and if Flightglobal is to be believed, that image above is the first capture of the craft. Reportedly, the shot was taken in Mojave, California where the vehicle is being constructed at Scaled Composites. One step closer to the next big leap for mankind? Sure looks like it.
WhiteKnightTwo scheduled to rollout in July, fly in September
While much of the attention surrounding Virgin Galactic's race to space tourism has surrounded its SpaceShipTwo, word has come that carrier ship WhiteKnightTwo will rollout in late July, and after some ground tests, take to the skies by September. With this rollout come some new details about the composite, twin-boom mothership, which Virgin Galactic is selling as an "open architecture" that they are clearly open to pimping for other applications. Says Prez Will Whitehorn, "WhiteKnightTwo is the world's most advanced payload carrier. It has the best fuel efficiency of any aircraft ever built in history. It is the world's first 100% carbon composite aircraft." They are even looking into using WhiteKnightTwo as a forest fire water bomber with its payload capacity. Nonetheless, we care because the giant ship that will carry rich people to space at $200,000 a pop is going to be flying by September. Press passes please?
SpaceShipTwo, White Knight Two designs unveiled: aren't they cute?
As expected, Sir Richard Branson has just unveiled the final designs of SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two, Virgin Galactic's planned commercial "spaceliner" and its corresponding carrier plane. At today's American Museum of Natural History launch event, Branson once again reiterated his lofty expectations for space tech in general and the six-passenger vehicle in particular, promising to promote privatization and more widespread research by offering outside organizations access to its launch system schematics. So far, Virgin has reportedly signed up 200 committed passengers willing to pay $200,000 for a 2010-or-later suborbital flight, but for now, all they can do is look at the pretty pictures in the gallery below.%Gallery-14508%
Scaled Composites to unveil the SpaceShipTwo on January 23rd?
It's been just a few months since a test of an experimental motor for Scaled Composites' SpaceShipTwo passenger space vehicles caused a deadly explosion at the company's Mojave Desert facility, but we're hearing whispers today that the craft will be unveiled on January 23rd, along with the WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane. Testing of the six-person ship will apparently start in mid-2008, with the first commercial Virgin Galactic flight tentatively scheduled for the end of 2009. That seems hopelessly optimistic to us, but then again, we're not ones to doubt the awesome combined powers of Burt Rutan and Richard Branson.
Deadly blast rocks Virgin Galactic rocket test
This week is quickly becoming a tough one for the aerospace industry, as just a day after NASA reported tampering on an ISS bound computer, an explosion at the Mojave Air and Space Port has claimed two lives and seriously injured four others. The blast reportedly occurred during a "test of a new rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo -- a spaceship being built for Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's space tourism company." According to a spokeswoman for the spaceport, the blast was "on a remote pad" at an airport home to Scaled Composite (which is the builder of the first private manned rocket to reach space), but the firm's founder Burt Rutan wasn't in attendance when the "cold fire test" went awry.
Spaceport America overcomes major hurdle
In an important step towards that glorious future of half-hour flights to the Akihabara district and welcoming the first members of the hundred-mile high club, voters of a southern New Mexico county selflessly approved a measure to impose a new tax on themselves and in the process give the governor's proposed 27-square mile space tourism launchpad a big push forward. The $198 million project, if given final approval, will be situated near the White Sands Missile Range in Otero County, one of the two remaining counties -- along with Sierra -- that must follow Doña Ana County's lead in imposing a quarter of one percent gross receipts tax for a crucial partial matching of state funds. Once all the financing and regulatory hurdles are overcome, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic -- the anticipated anchor company of the tentatively-titled SPaceport AMerica (or SPAM, as we like to call it) -- will begin offering sub-orbital flights in 2009 for a reported $200,000 a head, ensuring that our colleagues over at TMZ will have plenty of "celebrities behaving badly in space" stories to cover. Still, the project is not in the bag quite yet, and with critics in those other two counties calling SPAM a waste of money and an undue burden on some of the state's poorest regions, it looks like this one might really come right down to the wire.[Via ABC News]
Stephen Hawking in space (space... space...)
Well-known theoretical physicist and all-around geek hero Stephen Hawking has told the press he plans to undertake a zero-gravity flight this year in preparation for a hopeful berth on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourist service when it launches in 2009. Hawking, who has the neurological disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, communicates via a blink-controlled computer and uses a high-tech wheelchair for mobility, making space flight somewhat challenging -- but Virgin Galactic spokesperson Stephen Attenborough said in a statement Monday that Branson is committed to working through the issues that need to be addressed in order to accomodate people with disabilities on his company's trips into suborbit. Cost of a two-hour suborbital spaceflight? $200,000. The look on the most famous cosmologist's face upon actually making it into space? Priceless.