spacetoday.net: Virgin Galactic unveils WhiteKnightTwo

Posted: Mon, Jul 28, 2008, 10:38 PM ET (0238 GMT)
WhiteKnightTwo at rollout (J. Foust)

Space tourism company Virgin Galactic and vehicle developer Scaled Composites rolled out Monday morning WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), the carrier aircraft that will be used to launch SpaceShipTwo (SS2) on its future commercial suborbital spaceflights. The aircraft, built for Virgin by Scaled at its facilities in Mojave, California, is the largest aircraft ever built entirely with carbon composites, with a wingspan of over 42 meters. WK2 will be used to ferry SS2 to an altitude of nearly 15,000 meters, where SS2 will be released, firing its rocket engine to fly a suborbital trajectory. Test flights of the aircraft are slated to begin this fall. Development of SS2 has been slowed by an accident just over a year ago during a test of the vehicle's propulsion system that killed three Scaled employees and injured three others. A report on the accident is expected to be released in the near future, according to Scaled's founder, Burt Rutan. Virgin announced that it has now signed up 270 customers for its suborbital spaceflights, and has an agreement with a sister company, Virgin America, to allow that airline's pilots to train as WK2 and SS2 pilots.