Comments on: Virgin Galactic’s upcoming spaceflight plans

By: Virgin’s delays hardly surprising (nor as long) « NewSpace Journal

Virgin’s delays hardly surprising (nor as long) « NewSpace Journal — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:45:59 +0000

[…] Virgin Galactic president and CEO George Whitesides said at the beginning of this month that the company would “try to get to some definition of space by the end of next year”, implying that they would still be performing test flights at the end of […]

By: Kirk

Kirk — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:13:21 +0000

Thanks Peter for taking the time to add your clarifying comment. I was not sure what Whitesides was talking about but your comment made it all make sense.

By: Virgin dedicates its Spaceport America terminal « NewSpace Journal

Virgin dedicates its Spaceport America terminal « NewSpace Journal — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:18:23 +0000

[…] hard now to get the system ready for the first powered flights next year,” Whitesides said, a timeline similar to what he said early this month. He did add that another full-scale ground test of SpaceShipTwo’s rocket motor is planned […]

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:15:17 +0000

“some definition of space…”

I think he’s refering to a FAA and military (Edwards AFB) agreed upon test area to fly in. SpaceShipOne had a 20 mile X 20 mile X (unlimited altitude) BOX to fly in. They didn’t always succeed in staying in that box so I’d imagine they are asking for a larger box and the FAA and Edwards AFB are probably asking if they can stay in the box they allow. Gotta have lots of space for test flights, just not necessarily outer space!
~Peter