Two Phases Down, Five to Go
In the video, Richard Branson speaks of commercial flights in 18-24 months, an estimate he has given previously (including 14 months ago at the Oshkosh airshow).
_Aviation Week_ has an outline of Scaled Composites’ test program for SpaceShipTwo, which includes powered flights early next year:
> The flight marks the start of the third phase in a seven-phase test program that is expected to culminate with the start of space tourism and science flights in 2012…Unpowered glide testing, which follows four captive-carriage flights to simulate SS2 approaches, will be used to refine the vehicle’s aerodynamics and low-speed handling qualities. For the Oct. 10 flight, Scaled Composites had a cover over the nozzle of the Sierra Nevada RM2 hybrid rocket, and tufts below the duct to visualize the local flow field around the composite-skin nozzle section.
(…) Read the rest of [SpaceShipTwo Test Program: Two Phases Down, Five to Go][1] (114 words)
* * *
(C) Douglas for [Parabolic Arc][2], 2010. | [Permalink][1] | [No comment][3] | Add to [del.icio.us][4] Post
Feed enhanced by [Better Feed][12] from [Ozh][13]
[1]: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2010/10/13/spaceshiptwo-test-program-phases/ [2]: http://www.parabolicarc.com [3]: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2010/10/13/spaceshiptwo-test-program-phases/#comments [4]: http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.parabolicarc.com/2010/10/13/spaceshiptwo-test-program-phases/&title=SpaceShipTwo Test Program: Two Phases Down, Five to Go [5]: http://www.parabolicarc.com/tag/richard-branson/ [6]: http://www.parabolicarc.com/tag/scaled-composites/ [7]: http://www.parabolicarc.com/tag/space-tourism/ [8]: http://www.parabolicarc.com/tag/space-tourists/ [9]: http://www.parabolicarc.com/tag/spaceshiptwo/ [10]: http://www.parabolicarc.com/tag/virgin-galactic/ [11]: http://www.parabolicarc.com/tag/vms-enterprise/ [12]: http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/ [13]: http://planetozh.com/blog/
URL: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2010/10/13/spaceshiptwo-test-program-phases/