Virgin Galactic's Space Plane Unveiled To The Public (VIDEO)

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Todd Richmond, Associated Press Writer

OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) -- Hundreds of earthlings turned their faces to the sky Monday to see an airplane built to launch a ship into space, watching the gleaming white craft soar overhead.

The twin-fuselage craft named WhiteKnightTwo, looking like two planes connected at the wing tips, circled the runway several times before touching down at the Experimental Aircraft Association's Air Venture annual gathering.

It was the first glimpse the public had of the plane, which was made by Virgin Galactic as part of its effort to jump-start commercial space travel. Its designers, engineer Burt Rutan and British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, watched and smiled from the edge of the tarmac.

It was "majestic," said 13-year-old Alura Law of Reddick, Fla.

Her mother, 45-year-old Kim Law, is blind but aimed her camera at the sound of the WhiteKnightTwo. She said it offers hope that scientific experiments in weightlessness might someday restore her sight.

"I'm telling you, (I'm) real hopeful. Inspired," she said.

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Virgin Galactic's plan calls for WhiteKnightTwo to lift SpaceShipTwo, a pressurized spacecraft, into the atmosphere from a base in New Mexico. When they reach 50,000 feet, the spaceship would detach and blast into space at four times the speed of sound.

The six passengers would experience about five minutes of weightlessness and get a glimpse of Earth. The spaceship would glide back to Earth much like the space shuttle. Take-off to landing is expected to take about 2 1/2 hours.

Virgin Galactic doesn't have a launch date yet, but has taken 300 reservations at $200,000 each and is holding $40 million in deposits. Customers include scientist Stephen Hawking and "Superman Returns" director Bryan Singer, according to Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn.

"Superman Returns" even features a sequence involving two aircraft much like WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. In the movie, Lois Lane boards a launcher jet with a space shuttle-like vehicle attached. The jet lifts the shuttle into the atmosphere, but the plane ends up plunging to Earth and Superman must race to save it.

Virgin Galactic officials say safety will be their "guiding star."

"We not only have to do it safely, we have to give (passengers) a good time," said Virgin Galactic's commercial director, Stephen Attenborough.

The plan came about after Rutan partnered with Virgin Group chairman Branson. Rutan had made history in 2004 when his SpaceShipOne became the first private manned craft to reach space with help from launcher plane WhiteKnightOne. The feat earned him the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

WhiteKnightTwo has now made 16 test flights, Attenborough said. The company will keep testing it until fall, when tests will begin on SpaceShipTwo. Branson himself plans to take the first trip and bring his 92-year-old father and 89-year-old mother with him.

The WhiteKnightTwo, nicknamed "Eve" in honor of Branson's mother, sports a painting of a woman in a space helmet on both fuselages and looks like nothing so much as a gleaming white half of the letter "E."

"Most people never really believed it would be a reality," said Branson. "By just trying these things, new things come out of it."

Matthew Pritzker, a science fiction fan since his youth, has his trip booked. The 27-year-old from Chicago, who runs his own investment firm, is looking forward to being weightless and said he's no more nervous that he would be getting on a roller coaster.

Pritzker said he wants to walk on the moon someday, and SpaceShipTwo marks a step toward that.

"This venture will prove to be a huge, huge turning point in the world of travel," he said. "It means so much to people who grew up looking at the stars."

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Comments

[MMIIXX]

the first 500 paying customers will be Wall Street Bail out receivers stimulating the economy.
They have money to burn now.

[goldcoastsailor]

Advances in space travel must come from the private sector.

[AtheistUS]

You probably wanted to say "Advances in space entertainment must come from the private sector."

That's what private sector is good for: for certain kinds of entertainment - for easy kinds, exploiting simplest emotions.

[jsarets]

Private enterprise will produce the first microgravity porno.

[gcallaghan]

200 grand to reserve a seat?

If i had an endless stream of money coming in and was easily able to offord it, this would be, like, the second to last thing I'd spend 200K on. The last would be sending a nickel to UU's lie-berry

[FerrisValyn]

Well, you would be welcome to do that, but it would be short-sighted.

[DocPayne]

I know I'm not the only one who looked at WhiteKnightTwo and laughed. It looks like two planes welded together mid-wing, and looks like it could snap quite easily. Yeah, this is definitely a good idea.

[FerrisValyn]

Given that its already flown, multiple times, and and the whiteknight one flew quite well, and Rutan's track record, well, I am reasonably optimistic

[SouthJerseySteve]

You know, the naysayers said the same thing about a newfangled invention called the automobile in 1899 -- new technology scares people. Some narrow-minded folks still cannot fathom the thought of an African-American U.S. President! Get over it folks!!! It's not about better use of money, it's about the future industries and businesses (Mars Mission?) that we cannot even conceive yet.

[DocPayne]

You know, back before there was powered flight, there were a lot of people who came up with stupid ideas on how to get off the ground and into sustained flight.

Many of them contributed to flight even though they didn't achieve flight on their own.

But even more were just plain stupid ideas that didn't lead to further innovation. Branson and Ruttan fit this category.

[FerrisValyn]

So, whats your record of building private spacecraft? So far, Rutan is 1 for 1. Whats your record?

[liberalcynic]

What a farce!
Imagine what that money could have done in expanding his airline V Australia! I want to go to New York and he is not making it cheaper!
An expensive toy for no real outcome when you think about it - who in the international community benifts economically or socially?
How many people have lost their job or will not eat today?
Have a heart, this is immoral in my frank opinion; Branson you have done better things before.

[FerrisValyn]

Actually, the farce is those who don't see that this provides a path to a spacefaring socety, which we desperately should have.

This is much more than an expensive toy.

[doublehelix68]

True.

I remember visiting San Fran about 10 years ago and seeing something called a plasma TV on display. I could of bought it for about $15,000

I just got one last year (10 years later) and only paid $1500 (a 90% drop)

This will no doubt happen here (barring any serious world collapse).

Give it time and you too could be vacationing in space for about 6 minutes for less than $10,000.

[jsarets]

Looking down on Earth from space has had a profound impact on everybody who has had the experience. It changes the way we think about nature and humanity. It's a awesome reminder that the universe doesn't revolve around our petty self-interest. Not even close.

Idleness, hunger, and strife as sociological phenomena are primarily the result of our failure to appreciate or even tolerate the great diversity of life on our planet -- particularly within our own species -- and that the fantastic productivity of living systems is attained through mutually beneficial interdependence that enforces balance and harmony between competing interests.

Our problems are a reflection of our society, and no amount of aid money can fix that. Something needs to evolve the collective consciousness and encourage humanity to aspire to a purpose or ideal that transcends their own needs and wants.

We have this explosively complicated and in some ways intractible civilization to maintain, and all we care about is maximizing our piece of the pie. That's the problem.

[LindaInAus]

What pills are you ON??

[humuhumunukunukuapuaa]

Imagine this plane evolves into a commercial sub-orbital space plane capable of carrying passengers from Sydney and Los Angeles in 90 minutes. You know, that is called "vision".

[Agent420]

What a crybaby. It's all about you, isn't it. M0r0n.

[MurrayAbraham]

Actually it's not the space plane but the cargo plane which will bring the space plane into high altitude and launch it.

[MajorKong]

It sounds like 50 years after the fact they managed to re-create the X-15.

[editorjuno]

....at a tiny fraction of the cost -- an achievement not to be underestimated.

[jsarets]

Well, the X-15 was truly one of the "way ahead of its time" aerospace vehicles from the Cold War era. It burned anhydrous ammonia in cryogenic liquid oxygen delivered by a turbopump driven by the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. Very expensive and dangerous to operate.

In contrast, SpaceShipTwo burns solid rubber in pressurized nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Much, much simpler, cheaper, safer, and sustainable.

[MajorKong]

Yes, but how scalable is this design? I don't see its reentry method working from a higher, faster trajectory.

This could be a very impressive step down a technological blind alley.

[OkieIntellectual]

"Its designers, engineer Burt Rutan and British billionaire Sir Richard Branson..."

Okay first off, Branson is a financier, NOT a designer. His contribution to the design begins and ends with him saying "yeah, that looks cool."

Second, VG barely has enough money to keep the lights on at this point and unless Branson wants to dump a ton more money into that black hole, SpaceShipTwo will never carry a single paying passenger on a flight.

Third, they are basically going straight up (and not actually leaving the atmosphere since it extends out to 72mi.) for maybe five minutes of weightlessness, then straight back down for $200K. Oh and the total flight time is like 2.5 hours. That is ABSURD! For like $5000 you can get an hour of weightlessness the folks at Zero G.

I really admire what Rutan and all the other private space enterprise folks are doing, but VG is going to end up collapsing under the weight of Branson's ego.

[jsarets]

It's looking like both SpaceShipOne and SpaceX Falcon 9 will fly by the end of the year, following two consecutive successful launches of Falcon 1. Armadillo successfully completed their first untethered flight test of their vertical takeoff vertical landing rocket vehicle in the past week. And as I watch the Augustine Commission hearing, I see Jeff Greason from XCOR on the panel. Truly a great year for private space entrepreneurs.

[Agent420]

SS1 flew quite a while ago.

[digitalprophet]

All I know is that before I die I will be taking a ride.

[TheHandyman]

To the mortuary? Don't we all?

[HekmabaJuzimax]

You are already being taken for a ride. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the view!

[GeoffTaylor]

rich people doing whatever they want and not caring about the many starving people they left here on planet earth.
hope you die in space , karma

[FerrisValyn]

Except that, if this helps us become spacefaring, it will not be as simple as that.

You wanna help earth, we need a plan that moves us beyond earth

[OkieIntellectual]

Or we could try NOT overpopulating the planet and raping her natural resources in the name of ever-increasing profits.

Take care of your own house and it won't fall down around you, ya know?

[jsarets]

In case anyone is interested, a live webcast of the Augustine Commission public hearing on the future of NASA's human spaceflight program is starting right now:

http://www.nasa.gov/145590main_Digital_Media.asx

[zenwhenicanbe2]

Cool!

[Bitsko]

Must be nice being rich.

[globalwarmingisafraud]

Many of these people were not born rich. They worked hard for their money or lucked into developing something that a whole bunch pf people wanted.

[Ceregene]

or stole.............. and as far as that goes, yes many worked hard for their wealth. However, they never would have been given the opportunity in the New World if it had not been made possible by those rich folks who came before them and stole the land from the native people who were living here.

Some just worked hard at stepping on others to get where they are.

Everything has a history..............

[TheHandyman]

The vast majority of the feelthy rich did not actually do any work for their money. The inherited it or they had others do the work. That rich people "earn" money is the great lie they promote to make everyone else think that they too can get rich. Less than one half of one percent of the people in the US control 85% of all the money. They don't pay income tax because they don't have income, they have capital gains tax which is very low and they are trying to get Congress to eliminate that all together!

[victorsays]

They stole it.

[AtheistUS]

I understand a $million, or 10 millions $. But, say, hundred millions... they must have worked really hard :-)