The Coolest Picture Of SS2

Tail cam view of SS2 during burn.

(Credit Virgin Galactic)

First Powered Flight of SpaceShipTwo!

I got in to work early yesterday because Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic were planning the first powered flight of SpaceShipTwo and I wanted to be there to see it. The flight was a complete success! They did a 15 second burn on their hybrid engine and reached supersonic flight.

My coworkers had written down Scaled's frequencies and were listening in on their communications during the flight. It made for a wonderful narration for the video.

All those years of tracking model rocket flights paid off and I took a rather nice shot of the drop and ignition, all the way from nearly 50,000 feet:

I snapped this shot just as one of the chase planes was crossing the moon:

The entire video of the flight:



A big congratulations to Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic, and everyone in the New Space Industry for this awesome achievement!

SpaceShipTwo First Powered Flight Imminent!

Scaled Composites appears to be gearing up for a powered flight of their SpaceShipTwo this Monday or Tuesday. This is a very exciting time to be in New Space! The results of this flight will have a significant impact on the industry as a whole.

I watched White Knight II flying around with SS2 in tow, but I didn't get to see SS2 glide in by itself. They tend to do their drop tests early in the morning before I get in to work.

I don't know who took the above picture, but it is a fantastic view of their cold flow runs!

Well, whatever happens tomorrow or Tuesday, I hope it goes well for them. We're all rooting for you, SpaceShipTwo!

Virgin Galacitc's SpaceShipTwo First Flight Tests

SpaceShipTwo underwent a "drop-test" earlier this month from the White Knight aircraft. The goal of the test flights were to test the "feathering" reentry technique in which the ship effectively folds in half, providing vast amounts of drag while being dynamically stable.