SpaceShipTwo

[Floppy Disk]

[Paleopulo]

Это из серии "два мира, два Шапиро"?

[triage]

 http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/news/31653/
Компания Virgin Galactic готова испытать новейший самолет SpaceShipTwo, который будет доставлять людей в космос. Летные испытания начнутся в следующем месяце.

Тестирование самолета будет завершающим этапом, после чего будут организованы полноценные рейсы. По предварительным данным, они запланированы на следующий год.

Оригинал

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-08/virgin-galactic-to-restart-flight-tests-of-commercial-spaceship
...
Virgin Galactic Ltd., the commercial space company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, is set to resume test flights next month in a new spaceship that replaces the craft that crashed in a fatal accident two years ago.
The company is due to complete ground tests in August and move to testing the vessel in the skies while attached to an aircraft, according to Jonathan Firth, vice president at Virgin Galactic. The spaceship, named Unity, is scheduled to begin the final stage of testing -- independent, fully powered flights -- next year.
Branson is vying with Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin to be the first to ferry private adventurers to the edge of space in reusable craft. Virgin Galactic's flights have been grounded since October 2014, after its SpaceShipTwo broke up in mid-air, while Bezos's offering has successfully fired and landed its craft multiple times.
Virgin Galactic has yet to set a date for the first commercial flight, and Firth said this would depend on the results of the tests.

'More Conservative'
"We've thrown out so many dates in the past that we weren't able to keep to, we're being a bit more conservative this time," he said in an interview in London.
The designer of both spaceships, Scaled Composites LLC, should have protected against the flaw that caused Unity's predecessor to tear apart, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has said. The crash occurred when a pilot prematurely activated a brake, killing him and injuring a co-pilot.
The new spaceship has a similar design to the original one, which underwent about 30 powered flight tests before the incident.
....

[Виктор Левашов]

Тестирование самолета будет завершающим этапом, после чего будут организованы полноценные рейсы. По предварительным данным, они запланированы на следующий год.

О, как: полноценные рейсы уже. Лихо.
Интересно: пилотов толковых уже подготовили?

[triage]

Виктор Левашов пишет:

Тестирование самолета будет завершающим этапом, после чего будут организованы полноценные рейсы. По предварительным данным, они запланированы на следующий год.

О, как: полноценные рейсы уже. Лихо.
Интересно: пилотов толковых уже подготовили?

ошибки перевода 
 http://uapress.info/ru/news/show/137587/
 после чего будут организованы полноценные рейсы. 

источник
 http://futurism.com/virgin-galactic-is-starting-flight-tests-for-newest-spaceship/
These tests are to culminate in the final stage of testing — independent, fully powered flights — next year.
Гугл перевод
Эти тесты должны завершиться в завершающей стадии тестирования - независимая, полностью включен рейсы - в следующем году.

источник для них
 https://www.engadget.com/2016/07/09/virgin-galactic-unity-test-flight/
The Unity will be attached to another aircraft when it takes to the skies next month, though: full-powered, independent test flights won't begin until 2017.

Первоисточник  на http://www.bloomberg.com приведен выше.

p.s. сообщение со второй попытки

[Алексей Георгиевич Белозерский]

Интересно: пилотов толковых уже подготовили?

На сегодняшний день пилотами Верджина являются:
1) Дэвид МакКей (MacKay, David) (Великобритания) шеф-пилот
 2) Майкл Джозеф Мазуччи (Masucci, Michael Joseph)(США)
3) Фредерик Уилфорд Стеркоу (Sturckow, Frederick Wilford) (США) бывший астронавт
4) Тодд Кристофер Эриксон (Ericson, Todd Christopher)(США)
5) Марк Пол Стакки (Stucky, Mark Paul)(США), летчик-испытатель, то перехода в Верджин долгое время работал в Скалед(у Б.Рутана)
6) Никола Песиле (Pecile, Nicola)(Италия)
7) Келли Джейн Латимер (Latimer, Kelly Jane)(США)(женщина).

[Виктор Левашов]

pnetmon пишет:
ошибки перевода
 http://uapress.info/ru/news/show/137587/
 после чего будут организованы полноценные рейсы.

источник
 http://futurism.com/virgin-galactic-is-starting-flight-tests-for-newest-spaceship/
These tests are to culminate in the final stage of testing — independent, fully powered flights — next year.
Гугл перевод
Эти тесты должны завершиться в завершающей стадии тестирования - независимая, полностью включен рейсы - в следующем году.

источник для них
 https://www.engadget.com/2016/07/09/virgin-galactic-unity-test-flight/
The Unity will be attached to another aircraft when it takes to the skies next month, though: full-powered, independent test flights won't begin until 2017.

Первоисточник на http://www.bloomberg.com приведен выше.

В следующем году, то бишь, просто завершение последней стадии проверок, в то числе независимая и по полной программе полёта.
А то создалось впечатление, что в 2017 туристов возить начнут.
Ну, ладно...
Разобрались.

[Виктор Левашов]

Алексей Белозерский пишет:

Интересно: пилотов толковых уже подготовили?

На сегодняшний день пилотами Верджина являются:
1)  Дэвид МакКей  ( MacKay, David) (Великобритания) шеф-пилот
 2)  Майкл Джозеф Мазуччи  ( Masucci, Michael Joseph)(США)
 3) Фредерик Уилфорд Стеркоу (  Sturckow, Frederick Wilford) (США) бывший астронавт  
 4) Тодд Кристофер Эриксон (  Ericson, Todd Christopher)(США)
 5) Марк Пол Стакки (S  tucky, Mark Paul)(США), летчик-испытатель, то перехода в Верджин долгое время работал в Скалед(у Б.Рутана)
 6) Никола Песиле (  Pecile, Nicola)(Италия)
 7) Келли Джейн Латимер (  Latimer, Kelly Jane)(США)(женщина).

Прекрасно.
Я только за.

[Виктор Левашов]

Между нами говоря, у Нью Шеппард перспективы лучше: традиционная технология.
Но Вирджин галактик может быть сможет делать старты чаще. Хоть каждый день.
Очень интересно, кто ж победит.

[Феликс]

Regular пишет:

как барышня на "титанике", блин :-)

[Salo]

http://ria.ru/science/20160802/1473444197.html

FAA выдала двухлетнюю лицензию на испытательные полеты корабля SpaceShipTwo
19:31 02.08.2016

© AFP 2016/ Robin Beck

ВАШИНГТОН, 2 авг – РИА Новости. Virgin Galactic получила лицензию Федерального агентства воздушного транспорта (FAA) на испытательные полеты суборбитального корабля SpaceShipTwo, свидетельствует пресс-релиз компании.
 "Лицензия, которая в перспективе разрешит коммерческие полеты корабля, стала кульминацией продолжавшегося несколько лет глубоко взаимодействия с FAA", — говорится в сообщении. Полученная лицензия является "важным шагом" в реализации проекта компании и результатом "тщательного изучения дизайна, безопасности и траектории полета (корабля)", отмечают в Virgin Galactic.
Как сообщает в связи с этим во вторник портал Space News, лицензия разрешает испытательные полеты SpaceShipTwo в течение двух лет. При этом она не разрешает полеты коммерческих туристов до того момента, как компания "успешно проверит взаимодействие" суборбитального корабля SpaceShipTwo и самолета WhiteKnightTwo, который выводит его в космос, отмечает издание. Для разрешения начала полетов пассажиров на борту корабля FAA намерена изучить результаты предстоящих испытаний.
SpaceShipTwo (SS2) — частный пилотируемый суборбитальный космический корабль, который был создан для доставки туристов в космос. SpaceShipTwo способен совершать полеты на высоту около 100 километров, которая считается границей космоса. Первый испытательный полет с экипажем состоялся 10 октября 2010 года.
На испытаниях 31 октября 2014 года прототип космического корабля отстыковался от самолета-носителя, однако через несколько минут после старта двигателей распался на части. При крушении погиб один из пилотов. После крушения более двух десятков из 800 будущих пассажиров, купивших билет на полет на борту SpaceShipTwo, потребовали возвращения денег и заявили о намерении отказаться от космического полета.
 В феврале компания представила новый SpaceShipTwo (SS2), который стал первым кораблем, полностью сконструированным компаний The Spaceship Company, принадлежавшей корпорации Virgin Galactic. Первая модель данного корабля была сконструирована компанией Scaled Composites.
В понедельник Virgin Galactic начала наземные испытания нового корабля, затем будут проведены его летные испытания.
Корабль рассчитан на управление двумя пилотами, на борту в будущем будут размещаться до шести пассажиров. После запуска космический корабль разовьет скорость в три с половиной раза превышающую скорость звука, а пассажиры смогут испытать состояние невесомости в течение нескольких минут.

[Floppy Disk]

Новый корабль SpaceShipTwo совершил испытательный полёт (8-го сентября 2016 года)

Компания Virgin Galactic, основанная британским миллиардером Ричардом Брэнсоном, провела первые лётные испытания нового космического корабля для туристических полётов — SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity.

Напомним, что SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity был представлен в феврале нынешнего года. Этот корабль для суборбитальных полётов пришёл на смену аппарату SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise, который потерпел катастрофу в 2014 году в результате некорректных действий одного из пилотов.

Сообщается, что в ходе проведённых испытаний корабль SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity был всё время пристыкован к самолёту-носителю WhiteKnightTwo, который выступал в качестве «летающей аэродинамической трубы». На борту SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity находились два пилота, на борту WhiteKnightTwo — два пилота и инженер.

Связка из космического корабля и самолёта-носителя находилась в воздухе 3 часа 43 минуты. За это время, как отмечается, было собрано большое количество технической информации, которая теперь подвергнется тщательному анализу. Специалисты выяснят, какие узлы требуют доработки или внесения конструктивных изменений, после чего будет принято решение о дальнейших лётных испытаниях.

Virgin Galactic, напомним, планирует отправлять космических туристов за пределы земной атмосферы. После первоначального разгона в связке с самолётом WhiteKnightTwo корабль SpaceShipTwo отстыкуется на высоте примерно 16 км, где запустит собственные двигатели и достигнет отметки 100 км над поверхностью Земли. Аппарат способен брать на борт восемь человек: это шесть пассажиров и два пилота. Цена билета для туристов составит $250 000. 

[triage]

 
Virgin Galactic
Elevating Unity - Episode 1: Captive Carry
Published on Sep 9, 2016
On September 8, 2016, our new SpaceShipTwo--VSS Unity--took to the skies for the first time. This is first ever flight of a vehicle built by our manufacturing organization, The Spaceship Company.

 
VideoFromSpace
Virgin Spaceship 'Unity' Takes Flight Mated To WhiteKnightTwo | Video
Published on Sep 9, 2016
The new SpaceShipTwo took to the skies on September 9, 2016 for the first time. Performance at high altitude temperatures and air flow around the Unity were tested during the flight. -- Full Story: http://goo.gl/hUvGAE

[Salo]

http://spacenews.com/mike-moses-named-virgin-galactic-president/

Mike Moses named Virgin Galactic president
by Jeff Foust — October 13, 2016  
Mike Moses speaks at the ISPCS conference Oct. 13, the same day he was named president of Virgin Galactic. Credit: SpaceNews/Jeff Foust  
 
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A former NASA shuttle launch manager is the new president of Virgin Galactic as the company prepares to enter a new phase of test flights for its SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane.
Virgin Galactic announced Oct. 13 that Mike Moses has been promoted to president of the company. Moses joined Virgin Galactic in 2011 as vice president of operations after a NASA career that included working as a flight director and shuttle launch integration manager, responsible for the final dozen space shuttle launches.
"Not only is Mike a well-respected member of the space community, but his leadership within our own company has been critical to our success in building a world-class organization and team," Virgin Galactic Chief Executive George Whitesides said in a statement announcing the promotion.
Moses succeeds Steve Isakowitz, who was named in June as the next president and chief executive of the Aerospace Corp.
Virgin Galactic made the announcement immediately before Moses spoke at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) here. In his talk, Moses said that Virgin Galactic was preparing to move into the next phase of test flights of the second SpaceShipTwo spacecraft after a single "captive carry" flight Sept. 9, where the spaceplane remained attached to its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft.
"The next part of our test is free flight, and we're getting really close to that," he said, referring to glide flights where SpaceShipTwo is released from WhiteKnightTwo and glides to a runway landing without igniting its rocket engine. "We're probably just a month or two away from being ready to start our glide flight program."
In an interview after his ISPCS talk, Moses said that Virgin Galactic does not have a set number of glide flights planned, but instead will see how long it takes to achieve a series of test objectives, such as flying the vehicle with different weights and centers of gravity to study its flight characteristics. "There's 10 glide flights' worth of targets," he said. "We could do those in 8 flights, or it might take 15, but we're not going into the next phase before we clear those."
The glide flights will be followed by a series of powered test flights using its hybrid rocket motor. "We'll start slow," he said, with short-duration engine burns to accelerate SpaceShipTwo to Mach 1 to study its performance in the transonic regime. "Once that's under our belts, we'll punch through to full duration, expand the envelope, and look at all the off-nominal conditions that can occur."
The motor, he said, is still going through some qualification tests, but is otherwise essentially ready for flight. "If the spaceship was ready, we could do a powered flight tomorrow," he said.
Most of those tests will take place at Mojave Air and Space Port, site of all previous SpaceShipTwo test flights, including the original SpaceShipTwo vehicle lost in an October 2014 accident that killed the vehicle's co-pilot. Moses said that the final phases of the test flight program may be moved to Spaceport America in New Mexico, which will serve as the launch site for commercial flights.

[Salo]

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust  4 ч.4 часа назад  
Sturckow said the plan is to "spot check" the glide flight envelope of SS2 and move into powered flight tests in early 2017.
 
  Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust  4 ч.4 часа назад  
At Explorer's Club space event in NYC this morning, Virgin Galactic's CJ Sturckow says first glide flight of 2nd SS2 planned for Tuesday.

[Salo]

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust 30 мин.30 минут назад
The second SpaceShipTwo will make its first glide flight on Tuesday, a Virgin Galactic test pilot said today:

http://spacenews.com/virgin-galactic-set-to-begin-spaceshiptwo-glide-flights/

Virgin Galactic set to begin SpaceShipTwo glide flights
by Jeff Foust — October 29, 2016  

VSS Unity, the second SpaceShipTwo vehicle, is carried aloft by its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft Sept. 8. Its first glide flight is scheduled for Nov. 1. Credit: Virgin Galactic  

NEW YORK — Virgin Galactic is planning to begin glide flight tests of its second SpaceShipTwo next Tuesday, almost exactly two years after a fatal test flight of its first suborbital spaceplane.
Virgin Galactic test pilot CJ Sturckow, speaking at a "Space Stories" event at The Explorers Club here Oct. 29, said the company has scheduled the first glide flight of the vehicle, named VSS Unity, on Nov. 1. That flight would come after a single "captive carry" test flight of the vehicle in September, when the vehicle remained attached to its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft for its entire flight.
"It's ready to fly, and I'm really looking forward to seeing that," he said of SpaceShipTwo's upcoming glide flight.
That glide flight will be the first time VSS Unity has flown on its own, and will be the first in a series of glide flights before Virgin Galactic installs a hybrid rocket motor for powered flight tests. The glide test program will be shorter than for the first SpaceShipTwo since the second vehicle is very similar from an aerodynamics standpoint.
"As little as possible has changed," Sturckow said of the vehicle. "We're hoping to just spot-check the glide flight envelope and move quickly into powered flight testing." Those powered flight tests, he said, could begin early next year.
Sturckow added that SpaceShipTwo's hybrid rocket engine, which has gone through a long and troubled development at times, will be available when the vehicle is ready for those powered flight tests, having completed several full-duration burns. "I feel really good about our rocket motor now," he said. "When the spaceship is ready to go to space, the rocket motor will be, definitely."
A test flight on Nov. 1 would come two years and one day after the first SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise, broke apart during a powered test flight, killing the vehicle's co-pilot and injuring the vehicle's pilot. An investigation led by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the co-pilot, Michael Alsbury, prematurely unlocked the vehicle's feathering system, allowing the tail to rise as the vehicle passed through Mach 1 and thus causing an aerodynamic breakup.
"What the NTSB faulted Scaled Composites on was that a single pilot action could lead to the mishap," Sturckow said. Among the changes made to SpaceShipTwo was an "electronic inhibit" on the feathering system to prevent a pilot from prematurely unlocking it.
He added that inhibitor does have a manual override should the electronic system fail, allowing the pilots to still engage the feather. "That's sort of the best of all worlds. It's not a single action any more," he said.
One Virgin Galactic ticket holder, speaking later at The Explorer's Club event, said he was not deterred by the 2014 accident and subsequent delays. "It was like someone punching me in the stomach," said James Clash, recalling his response to news about the accident two years ago. He said he decided shortly afterwards to keep his ticket, confident the company would solve the problem and successfully fly. "My dream, as a Baby Boomer, is to go into space."
Clash said he paid a $20,000 deposit in 2010 for a ticket, then valued at $200,000. "I'm number 610 on the list," he said, and thus knows he won't fly for some time after Virgin Galactic does begin commercial SpaceShipTwo flights. "I think I'll fly by 2019."

[Max Andriyahov]

Завтра полетит?

[Pirat5]

Virgin Galactic ‏@virgingalactic  18 мин.18 минут назад
Weather hasn't been great the past few days, but right now looking okay for flight. We'll keep a close eye on it. #SpaceShipTwo

Virgin Galactic ‏@virgingalactic  16 мин.16 минут назад
We're closely monitoring winds. Possible we'd take off but not glide. Always good to gather data, even in captive carry #SpaceShipTwo

[Виктор Левашов]

оба на: проект ещё жив?

[triage]

https://twitter.com/virgingalactic/status/793466942967263233
Read more about the new phase of VSS Unity's extensive test program, which starts today: http://www.virgingalactic.com/upd ate-from-mojave-the-next-phase-of-flight-test/ ... #SpaceShipTwo
http://www.virgingalactic.com/update-from-mojave-the-next-phase-of-flight-test/
In September, VSS Unity took to the skies for the first time. It was a fulfilling and emotional experience for our team—but even more so, it was . Using our carrier airplane, WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve, as a 'flying wind tunnel,' we captured terabytes of extremely valuable data fr om a nearly four hour long flight.
After thoroughly analyzing that data and completing other planned work on VSS Unity, we are nearly ready to move into the next phase of flight. The results fr om September's test were encouraging enough that the team agreed that no further captive carry flights are needed. The next time VSS Unity takes to the sky, we plan for her to be released from the mothership and to glide home on her own for the first time ever.
This test will be the first of a sequence of glide test flights. These flights will cumulatively allow us to test and prove the performance of the vehicle in a variety of conditions: both heavy (e.g. simulating the full weight of a load of fuel, oxidizer, and people) and light (with empty tanks) and in between, at a variety of flight path angles and airspeeds, and so forth.
This testing of the "corners of the box" is designed to demonstrate how VSS Unity will perform as it returns from space, after the feather system is retracted and the vehicle becomes a glider and lands on the runway like an airplane. In addition, this phase of flight will also demonstrate and test our abort modes – which culminate in a safe glide back to the runway.
Our team of flight test experts has developed a se t of requirements for each planned test flight as well as detailing exactly what we need to test in order to be ready to proceed to the next phase of rocket powered flights. We will fly as many flights as we need to in order to achieve all these objectives.
Our first glide flight will be focused on testing the fundamental performance and handling qualities of VSS Unity. For this first test, we will keep the vehicle at a light weight and will place a "speed lim it" on the pilots (Mach 0.6). Once we analyze the results from this test, we will be cleared to go faster on subsequent tests.
We're excited to take this next step on our road to space. In the graphic below, you can see wh ere this milestone puts us on that journey—a lot of hard work behind us and still a lot of important work yet to do.
Please stay tuned to this site and our social media channels (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn) for more information as our flight testing program progresses. Although we will not livestream the upcoming test flight, we will post information on Twitter in real time.

https://twitter.com/virgingalactic/status/793467825906069504
Today is 2nd ever flight for VSS Unity (215th for WhiteKnightTwo). Last time, #SpaceShipTwo stayed mated to the mothership for full flight

https://twitter.com/virgingalactic/status/793468861781729282
Virgin Galactic‏@virgingalactic
1 нояб. 2016 г.
Images: VSS Unity and mothership VMS Eve shortly after takeoff this morning. Stay tuned for updates on today's test flight #SpaceShipTwo