Our own space ninja, Peter Ha, is reporting live from the Mojave desert at the unveiling of the White Knight 2. Virgin Galactic is Sir Richard Branson’s latest venture which should put the rich into outer space where they can no longer harm us, the poor.
I’ve just touched down in the Mojave and we’re all awaiting the unveiling of the White Knight 2. Buzz Aldrin is on hand as well as Sir Richard Branson’s parents. The White Knight 2 is the world’s largest all carbon composite aircraft with many of its composite materials having been used for the first time. It has a 140-foot wingspan that’s the longest single carbon composite aviation component ever manufactured. The WK2 is capable of a maximum of 50,000 ft and has the power, strength and moves to help train pilots for pre space-flight positive G forces and zero G training.
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All I can say is that Richard Branson rocks! http://blabtech.blogspot.com
that doesn’t look very safe
Does not look very safe? please do tell how you can tell if something is safe just by looking at it???
if I’m going into vacuum I’d want a thicker fuselage than that of a normal plane
The airplane does not go into space. The spaceship is mounted between the two fuselages and is launched from there. It is not complete yet.
It’s a sub-orbital plane - you’re not in the vacuum of space.
SS2 goes into space (if that’s what you were talking about; technically speaking WK2 is sub-orbital too - all planes that don’t travel the whole way around the world are, but usually the words ’sub-orbital’ and ‘orbital’ are reserved for spaceflights). A sub-orbital spaceflight *is* still a spaceflight, and it is in the vacuum of space.
Hahaha, I loved the, “…put the rich into outer space where they can no longer harm us, the poor.” Haha…
Cheers,
V
“Virgin Galactic is Sir Richard Branson’s latest venture which should put the rich into outer space where they can no longer harm us, the poor.”
That way a moon-resort would mean an icing on the cake for us, the poor.
Well yeah, or adding insult to injury :). It’s a bit sad that Virgin Galactic are charging so much, they’re really manipulating their early entry to the market - Burt Rutan has hinted (to my interpretation) that they’re making a 90% profit margin: “…which is pretty good, when you can operate it successfully at a tenth of that” (from TEDTalks seminar - see YouTube).
Virgin Galactic spaceship: Wow! or Meh [VOTE] http://snurl.com/36lxj [www_thriveorfail_com]
It has a killer look. It looks bit small for serious training!
I think the rich need to start looking at the carbon footprint this venture will cause.
It’s probably a smaller carbon footprint than Al Gore’s 40,000 sqft house.
@Aaron Uh, his house has 30 solar panels on top and they’re adding wind turbines too. He uses a hybrid car. He buys carbon offsets when he flies. It’s extremely unfair to say he doesn’t act what he teaches; he does. And beside that, climate change won’t suddenly go away because people blame Al Gore for it; we need to act on it, not moan about what we think that other people are doing (when they aren’t).
@napa It’s actually a pretty low carbon footprint; SS2 merely accelerates to Mach 3 and is actually powered for a very short amount of time until it uses momentum to reach apogee. WK2 is just a carrier aircraft. It’s like the situation with the Space Shuttle: people see the huge exhaust plume and scream “CO2!!!!” when most of it’s water vapour from the main engines (although during the first 2 minutes of the total 8 1/2 minutes of powered flight, the non-eco solid rocket boosters provide above 82% of thrust, so yes, it’s not all good). But despite the non-econess of the SRBs, the total C02 emissions from all the shuttle launch exhausts over the period a year of shuttle operations is very small as a percentage of US emissions (the estimate for the total CO2 emissions from total energy use and rocket exhaust from 2009-2020 of the new Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles of the up-and-coming Project Constellation to land Americans back on the Moon and onto Mars is estimated in NASA’s final report at 0.004% of all US emissions from 2009-2020). So for the huge environmental, medical, technological, inspirational, and other benefits and thousands of spin-offs of the space programme, it’s not even a matter worth discussing - it’s so insignificant.
space seems to be this season’s must-have accessory!!!
Another pic of it http://twitpic.com/5pm2 posted by iJustine
“It’s a sub-orbital plane - you’re not in the vacuum of space.”
Incorrect.
SpaceShipTwo, while sub-orbital, will cross the internationally recognized boundary in to space and will definitely be in free fall through the vacuum of space, albeit only for a few minutes.
Altitude is the important indicator of hardness of vacuum, not necessarily whether a spacecraft is going on a suborbital or orbital trajectory.
Even as far back as the 1940s, Nazi Germany’s V-2s crossed in to space on some of their experimental launches.
All I can say is awesome! Space is till the final frontier. Stuff like this has even inspired me to go for my own record. http://www.FliteRecord.com
space? more people have been to the moon then have been below 2000 meters in our oceans. We know more about space then we do about whats in our own oceans.
Hopefully will explode suborbital with a couple of rich scumbags (lawyers first please).
I think TC should be on the first flight. Let’s send MA. That would put his physical body at the same elevation as his ego
lol.
Does anyone know if this is a variable yaw dual fuselage plane, or just dual fuselage?
http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e158/vasago321/
I love this plane! It’s so revolutional…And I love the Mojave Desert, too (LOL!)
Right i dont no what any of you are on about but the plane does look very kewl . . . . . .