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SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital spaceplane currently under development by The Spaceship Company, a joint venture between Scaled Composites and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group of the UK, as part of the Tier 1b program. The Virgin Galactic spaceline plans to operate a fleet of five of these craft in passenger-carrying private spaceflight service starting in 2008. The first spacecraft to be completed will be named VSS (Virgin Space Ship) Enterprise in honor of the Starship Enterprise, and have the FAA registration number N400K (refers to the target altitude of 400,000 feet, approx. 76 miles, or 121.92 kilometers). Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... A sub-orbital spaceflight (or sub-orbital flight) is a spaceflight that does not involve putting a vehicle into orbit. ... A spaceplane is a rocket plane designed to pass the edge of space. ... The Spaceship Company is a spacecraft manufacturing company formed by Burt Rutan and Richard Branson, jointly owned by Virgin Group and Scaled Composites, which will own the techology created by Scaled for Virgin Galctics Virgin SpaceShip program. ... Scaled Composites (often abbreviated as Scaled) was founded in 1982 in Mojave, California by famous aircraft designer Burt Rutan out of what used to be the Rutan Aircraft Factory. ... Sir Richard Branson during the announcement of the Virgin Express airline which would compete with Ryanair and EasyJet. ... // Virgin Refreshed Corporate logo of the Virgin Group introduced 2006 Usage of these images is restricted. ... Tier 1b is Burt Rutans nickname for the SpaceShipTwo/White Knight Two suborbital tourist human spaceflight platform in development at Scaled Composites with Mojave Aerospace Ventures by The Spaceship Company for Virgin Galactic. ... Virgin Galactic is a spaceline in Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Group, which plans to offer sub-orbital spaceflights and later orbital spaceflights to the paying public. ... This space for sale During the early years of spaceflight only nation states had the resources to develop and fly spacecraft. ... 2008 (MMVIII) will be a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... USS Enterprise (XCV 330) (Earth’s, possibly American) Enterprise (NX-01) (from United Earth’s Starfleet) USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) (the Federations first so named) USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) (the Federations second so named) USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) (the Federations third so named) USS Enterprise... FAA may refer to: Federal Aviation Administration in the United States Fleet Air Arm in the UK Royal Navy Fuerza Aérea Argentina in Argentina This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

The SpaceShipTwo craft is based on technology developed for SpaceShipOne as part of the Scaled Composites Tier One program, funded by Paul Allen. The Spaceship Company is licensing this technology from Paul Allen's Mojave Aerospace Ventures. Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne SpaceShipOnes patch The Scaled Composites Model 316 SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched suborbital spaceplane that uses a hybrid rocket motor. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Paul Gardner Allen (born January 21, 1953) is an American entrepreneur who established himself by co-founding Microsoft with Bill Gates. ... Mojave Aerospace Ventures (MAV) is a company founded by Paul Allen and Burt Rutan to handle the commercial spinoffs from the Tier One project. ...

According to an interview with designer Burt Rutan, the new craft will fly higher and have a longer downrange than SpaceShipOne, 100 or 200 miles. The maximum capacity will be seven paying passengers with the assistance of two pilots. Elbert Leander Burt Rutan (born June 17, 1943 in Estacada, Oregon) is an American aerospace engineer, noted for originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. ... Downrange is the horizontal distance travelled by a spacecraft, or the spacecrafts horizontal distance from the launch site. ...

The BBC reports that SpaceShipTwo's crew cabin will have about the same diameter as a Gulfstream V business jet, which is roughly 6 feet high and 7 feet wide. Rutan is designing towards a maximum altitude of between 84 and 87 miles (135-140 km). The design of these craft was completed in late 2005, and the vehicle simulator was complete and construction had started by March 2006[1]. The vehicle will not be unveiled to the public until just before flight testing starts, in late 2007. Following a series of 50-100 test flights, the first paying customers are expected to fly aboard the craft in late 2008. The Gulfstream G500 is a private jet aircraft produced by Gulfstream Aerospace, Savannah, Georgia, USA, a General Dynamics company. ...

Both SpaceShipTwo and its new carrier aircraft, Eve (or White Knight Two), will be roughly twice the size of the first generation spacecraft and mothership that won the Ansari X Prize. While details remain scant, designer Burt Rutan says that SpaceShipTwo will have extremely large porthole windows for the passengers' viewing pleasure, and all seats will recline back during launch to help decrease the discomfort of G-forces. All passengers will be allowed to fly without the aid of pressure suits (unlike NASA astronauts) and the experience will be similar to a high-altitude passenger jet. Reportedly "catastrophic damage" to the vehicle will still result in a safe landing. [2] Scaled Composites White Knight Two or Eve is the first stage of a two-stage to suborbital-space manned launch system. ... The X prize logo shows a stylised letter X representing a spacecraft trajectory and containing a starfield. ... NASA logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

In August 2005, the president of space tourism company Virgin Galactic stated that if the upcoming suborbital service with SpaceShipTwo is successful, the follow-up SpaceShipThree will be an orbital craft. 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in August August 31: Michael Sheard August 26: Lord Fitt August 24: Jack Slipper August 24: Maurice Cowling August 24: Dr. Tom Pashby August 23: Brock Peters August 22: Lord Lane August 21: Robert Moog August... The Scaled Composites SpaceShipThree is a proposed orbital spaceplane to be developed by Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites if SpaceShipTwo is successful. ...

SpaceCraft

Five SpaceCraft have been ordered. So far only one has been named(VSS Enterprise). This is also under developement. The other four have not been named yet. Virgin Galactic is a company in Richard Bransons Virgin Group, which plans to offer spaceflights to the paying public. ...

1. VSS Enterprise (Currently Under Developement) Virgin Galactic is a company in Richard Bransons Virgin Group, which plans to offer spaceflights to the paying public. ...

2. VSS Voyager (Expected to be named this by 2008) Virgin Galactic is a company in Richard Bransons Virgin Group, which plans to offer spaceflights to the paying public. ...

3. No Name

4. No Name

5. No Name

Launch site

According to a December 2005 interview with Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson, the SpaceShipTwo craft will initially take off from the Mojave Spaceport in California. Southwest Regional Spaceport, a $200 million spaceport in New Mexico partly funded by the state government, will become the permanent launch site starting in 2009. The company has also shown interest in building spaceports in other parts of the world, including Florida, Saudi Arabia and Scotland. However, the likelihood of these other launching points depends on the success of the initial spaceports in Mojave and New Mexico. Mojave Airport, storage location for commercial airliners. ... Southwest Regional Spaceport is the planned name of the U.S.s first built-from-scratch commercial spaceport. ... A spaceport is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with airport for aircraft. ... Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area  Ranked 5th  - Total 121,665 sq mi (315,194 km²)  - Width 342 miles (550 km)  - Length 370 miles (595 km)  - % water 0. ...

External links

• Scaled Composites
• Formation of The Spaceship Company
• SpaceShipTwo information on Spacedaily.com
• Virgin soars towards new frontier (BBC News)
• Space or Bust: Feature article on space tourism (Cosmos Magazine)
• Summary of comments by Rutan regarding SpaceShipTwo from EAA Oshkosh
• What is Virgin Galactic?
• Space Law Probe: Space Law in Paris - March 20, 2006: Brief notes on address by Wil Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic
• Human spaceflight goes commercial - BBC News, March 21, 2006
• Virgin Galactic Customers Parting with Their Cash - Monday, April 3, 2006 (SPACE.com)

Related content

Related development: Scaled Composites Model 316, Scaled Composites Eve SpaceShipOne is small, having a three-person cabin and short but wide wings. ... Scaled Composites White Knight Two or Eve is the first stage of a two-stage to suborbital-space manned launch system. ...

Comparable aircraft: North American X-15, X-38 The X-15 in flight, early 1960s The North American X-15 rocket plane was perhaps the most important of the USAF/USN X-series of experimental aircraft, after only possibly the Bell X-1. ... The X-38 was a program under leadership of NASA Johnson Space Center to build a series of incremental flight demonstrators for the proposed Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) for the International Space Station. ...

Designation sequence: SpaceShipOne - SpaceShipTwo - SpaceShipThree Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne SpaceShipOnes patch The Scaled Composites Model 316 SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched suborbital spaceplane that uses a hybrid rocket motor. ... The Scaled Composites SpaceShipThree is a proposed orbital spaceplane to be developed by Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites if SpaceShipTwo is successful. ...