Virgin Galactic flew SpaceShipTwo on Thursday, sending the suborbital vehicle on a glide flight above the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The purpose of the flight, [...]]]>

SpaceShipTwo approaches the runway at Mojave Air and Space Port in California after its most recent test flight on August 28, 2014. (credit: Jason DiVenere/Scaled Composites)

Virgin Galactic flew SpaceShipTwo on Thursday, sending the suborbital vehicle on a glide flight above the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The purpose of the flight, according to a series of tweets from the company, was to perform a “cold flow” test of the vehicle’s propulsion system, running liquid oxidizer through the motor without igniting it. “As with all test flights, we’ll analyze the data in great detail before moving on,” the company said in one tweet, “but from the ground, it looked very successful.”

That test is likely to be one of the last before Virgin Galactic resumes powered test flights of the vehicle, using a new motor that the company announced in May. This glide flight, and one a month earlier, were the first flights for SpaceShipTwo since a powered test flight in early January and a glide flight later that month. The company called the flight an “important test” of the vehicle, “and a great dress rehearsal for our next powered flight, which is coming soon.”

In an interview with USA Today earlier this month, Sir Richard Branson suggested those powered test flights would be restarting within weeks. “We are now in the last few weeks before finally embarking on the space program,” he said in the interview, published August 17.

More than a month after DARPA formally announced the winners of Phase 1 contracts for its Experimental Spaceplane 1 (XS-1) program, the last of the three companies that received those contracts unveiled the design of the concept.

In a press release Tuesday, Northrop Grumman [...]]]>

An illustration of Northrop Grumman’s XS-1 concept. (credit: Northrop Grumman)

More than a month after DARPA formally announced the winners of Phase 1 contracts for its Experimental Spaceplane 1 (XS-1) program, the last of the three companies that received those contracts unveiled the design of the concept.

In a press release Tuesday, Northrop Grumman showed off an illustration of its XS-1 design. The vehicle looks somewhat similar to Boeing’s XS-1 design, which the company released at the time the contract awards were announced last month. The release offers few other technical details, beyond that it will be launched vertically (based on statements in the release about plans for a “clean pad launch using a transporter erector launcher”) with a runway landing.

Northrop Grumman’s team includes its wholly-owned subsidiary, Scaled Composites, and Virgin Galactic, which has been working with Scaled on the development of SpaceShipTwo. Scaled will lead the fabrication and assembly of XS-1, while Virgin would be responsible for “commercial spaceplane operations and transition,” according to the release.

Besides Northrop Grumman and Boeing, Masten Space Systems also received a Phase 1 XS-1 award last month. All three contracts run for 13 months and cover early design work on each company’s concepts. The goal of the XS-1 program is to develop a vehicle that can serve as a reusable first stage for a medium-class launch system, as well as a hypersonic research testbed. The XS-1 vehicle would be designed to fly ten times in ten days, with at least one flight traveling at speeds up to Mach 10.

It turns out that Tuesday’s release was not the first time that this illustration of Northrop Grumman’s XS-1 design had been shown publicly. At the end of a presentation at the NewSpace 2014 conference July 26 offering an overview of cheap access to space efforts, Jeff Lane of Northrop Grumman showed this illustration as a closing slide, without discussing what it represented (the company’s XS-1 concept). “So the need is there. I think the technology is ready. So let’s go do it,” he said as the illustration appeared on the screen, referring to the concept of cheap access to space in general. You can see that in the video of the conference session below, starting at the 15:00 mark:

It’s been more than seven months since SpaceShipTwo last flew under rocket power, a hiatus linked in large part [...]]]>

SpaceShipTwo fires its hybrid rocket engine during its third powered test flight on January 10, 2014. The next powered test flight, using a new hybrid rocket motor, may take place within weeks. (credit: Virgin Galactic)

It’s been more than seven months since SpaceShipTwo last flew under rocket power, a hiatus linked in large part to a decision by Virgin Galactic in May to change the fuel used in the vehicle’s hybrid rocket motor. In late July, SpaceShipTwo made its first free flight since January, a glide flight.

Now, Sir Richard Branson hints that SpaceShipTwo will soon resume powered test flights. In a wide-ranging interview with Maria Bartiromo published by USA Today on Sunday, Branson says that Virgin Galactic is still on track to make its first commercial flight before the end of the year, just four and a half months away.

“We’ve got three more rocket tests and then we should be up, up and away by the end of the year,” he said, when asked by Bartiromo about the company’s schedule. “The space port’s [sic] ready. We are now in the last few weeks before finally embarking on the space program.” He also said that the “rockets” have been successfully tested, presumably a reference to static test fires of the new hybrid rocket motor on the ground.

“I’ll be bitterly disappointed if I’m not into space by the end of the year,” he adds. There are, of course, many skeptics who believe that Branson still stands to be “bitterly disappointed” come December 31.

For the first time in more than six months, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo flew on Tuesday, albeit not under rocket power. The vehicle made its 29th glide flight, with pilots Michael Masucci and Pete Siebold [...]]]>

SpaceShipTwo, attached to its WhiteKnightTwo carrier airplane, taxies before takeoff on its latest test flight July 29. (credit: Virgin Galactic)

For the first time in more than six months, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo flew on Tuesday, albeit not under rocket power. The vehicle made its 29th glide flight, with pilots Michael Masucci and Pete Siebold at the controls. Virgin didn’t disclose the purpose of the flight beyond being part of the company’s overal test program. “As the world’s first commercial spaceline, we’re committed to conducting a thorough test flight program” for SS2 and its carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, the company said in a tweet.

The flight was the first time SS2 flew since a glide flight on January 17, according to the flight test logs maintained by Scaled Composites. SS2 has made three powered test flights, most recently on January 10. Since then, the company has changed the fuel used in the hybrid rocket motor in SS2, switching from a rubber-based fuel to a nylon one.

There have also been a couple personnel additions at Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company (TSC), the Virgin-owned venture that builds the vehicles. On July 24, Virgin announced it had hired a new pilot, Todd “Leif” Ericson, a former US Air Force test pilot. And on Wednesday, Virgin announced that former Scaled president Doug Shane is now the president of TSC. Shane joined TSC last year as executive vice president and general manager; the reason for the position change wasn’t indicated.

The release offered one other item about Virgin’s efforts: work on the second SS2 vehicle is now “roughly 50%” complete.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced Tuesday it has awarded study contracts to three teams, representing a mix of established and entrepreneurial space companies, to study concepts for a reusable suborbital spaceplane.

DARPA said [...]]]>

Boeing’s concept for the XS-1 spaceplane, one of three selected by DARPA for Phase 1 studies. (credit: Boeing)

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced Tuesday it has awarded study contracts to three teams, representing a mix of established and entrepreneurial space companies, to study concepts for a reusable suborbital spaceplane.

DARPA said it awarded contracts to three teams: Boeing, working with Blue Origin; Masten Space Systems, working with XCOR Aerospace; and Northrop Grumman, working with Virgin Galactic. The contracts, for phase one of the Experimental Spaceplane 1 (XS-1) program, cover initial design work on concepts for the vehicle, designed to serve as a reusable lower stage of a low-cost launch system for medium-sized satellites.

“We chose performers who could prudently integrate existing and up-and-coming technologies and operations, while making XS-1 as reliable, easy-to-use and cost-effective as possible,” said DARPA XS-1 program manager Jess Sponable in a DARPA statement announcing the contracts. “We’re eager to see how their initial designs envision making spaceflight commonplace—with all the potential military, civilian and commercial benefits that capability would provide.”

The DARPA statement did not reveal the size of the contracts. However, DARPA has earlier announced, though a Federal Business Opportunities posting, a contract award to Masten valued at just under $3 million. Boeing, in its own press release about the contract, said its contract was valued at $4 million, although it wasn’t clear if that included any award to Blue Origin.

Boeing also released an illustration of its XS-1 concept, a winged vehicle. “Boeing brings a combination of proven experience in developing launch systems and reusable space vehicles, along with unparalleled expertise in the development and fielding of highly operable and cost-effective transportation systems,” said Steve Johnston, director of Boeing’s Phantom Works Advanced Space Exploration division, in the Boeing release.

The goal of the XS-1 program is to develop a vehicle capable of flying ten times in ten days, including at one least one flight to Mach 10. The XS-1, coupled with an expendable upper stage, would be able to launch satellites weighing up to about 2,270 kilograms into low Earth orbit for no more than $5 million a flight. The vehicle could also serve as hypersonics technology testbed. DARPA will select a company in a Phase 2 some time next year to build the XS-1.

In the latest evidence that the search engine giant is taking an increased interest in space, British broadcaster Sky News [...]]]>

Illustration of Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne igniting its first stage engine after being dropped from WhiteKnightTwo. Google’s reported interest in Virgin Galactic likely centers on this smallsat launch system Virgin is developing. (credit: Virgin Galactic)

In the latest evidence that the search engine giant is taking an increased interest in space, British broadcaster Sky News reported Thursday that Google is in discussions to invest in Virgin Galactic. According to the report, Google would take a small stake in Virgin Galactic itself: no more than $30 million. More importantly, though, it would reportedly invest “hundreds of millions of dollars” in a joint venture with Virgin Galactic.

The report doesn’t specify the nature of that joint venture, but most likely it would involve Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne, a smallsat launch system the company announced two years ago. LauncherOne uses the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft developed originally for SpaceShipTwo, but instead of the suborbital vehicle, the plane would carry a two-stage rocket capable of launching satellites weighing up to 225 kilograms into low Earth orbit. Earlier this year, Virgin announced successful test firings of liquid-propellant Newton engines it’s developing for LauncherOne.

Any interest Google has in Virgin Galactic is likely with LauncherOne because of the company’s emerging smallsat plans. Earlier this week, Google announced plans to acquire Skybox Imaging, which is planning a constellation of small remote sensing satellites, and is one of LaunchOne’s initial customers. Google is also reportedly supporting a communications satellite constellation called WorldVu that would require the launch of more than 300 smallsats to provide broadband Internet service.

While the Sky News report got a lot of publicity (although little additional reporting; NBCNews.com got “no comment” responses from both Google and Virgin as it tried to follow up on the report), this is not the first report of a Google-Virgin linkup. Last month, Parabolic Arc reported that the two companies were in discussions about potential cooperation between the companies, including one scenario where Google would acquire the Newton engine technology and move its development to Hangar One at Moffett Field, the hangar at NASA’s Ames Research Center, near Google’s headquarters, that Google is in negotiations with the US government to lease.

After many months of speculation, including sightings of engine tests at the Mojave Air and Space Port [...]]]>

A hybrid engine using polyamide, or plastic, fuel is tested by Virgin Galactic on May 8. Virgin plans to use this in place of the rubber-based fuel originally developed to launch SpaceShipTwo into space. (credit: Virgin Galactic)

After many months of speculation, including sightings of engine tests at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, Virgin Galactic announced on Friday that it be switching to a new plastic fuel in the hybrid rocket motor that will power SpaceShipTwo on upcoming test flights.

In a statement Friday, the company said it would replace the hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) solid fuel—a form of rubber—that had been in the hybrid rocket motor with a polyamide-based fuel, which the company describes as a “benign thermoplastic.” Polyamides can come in a number of forms, including nylon. That new fuel has been used in a number of ground tests, including a full-duration burn on May 8:

“There was no single thing” that caused the company to switch fuels, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said in a phone interview Friday afternoon. “We just saw better performance on a few different criteria. We think that our burn duration will be longer and therefore we think there’s the prospect of increased apogee.” He declined to quantify those improvements, but said the company would provide more information in the coming months.

The HTPB technology came from Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) via its acquisition several years ago of SpaceDev, the company that manufactured the hybrid motors that powered SpaceShipOne on its suborbital spaceflights in 2004. Whitesides said Virgin Galactic started work on the plastic fuel as early as 2009, through Scaled. (Former Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn talked about developing a motor that burned nylon during the dedication of Spaceport America’s runway in October 2010.)

“The motors that we’ve been using have been sort of a joint effort between SNC, Scaled, VG, and TSC [The Spaceship Company],” he said, each working on different parts of the motor. “It’s been a team effort, and I expect it to continue to be a team effort going forward.” He later said specifically that SNC would still be involved in the motor program.

Whitesides said the motors with the plastic fuel would be used on the next round of SpaceShipTwo test flights. “We still expect it to be in the summer,” he said of the timing of those flights, perhaps towards the latter part of the summer.

Prior to Friday’s announcement, there had been widespread reports that Virgin was studying alternatives to the rubber-fuel motor that had powered SpaceShipTwo on its first three test flights. That speculation included claims that the hybrid motor caused serious vibrations in SpaceShipTwo when firing. Whitesides said Friday that the “smoothness of the burn seems more promising” with the plastic fuel, but that wasn’t major concern.

“We had gotten through the toughest part on both motors,” he said. “I think we actually could have put HTPB into the program and we were considering that strongly, but in the end the most recent data that we had looked really good for plastic.”

Other work underway on SpaceShipTwo includes ongoing work to outfit the interior of the vehicle. Engineers have installed the mounting brackets for the seats and have built four production models of the seats. Some of those seats will undergo a variety of tests before Virgin Galactic starts installing them into the vehicle.

WhiteKnightTwo has also undergone some work, including the installation of new landing gear in preparation for commercial flights. “We need to beef up the gear for commercial service,” he said, including rating for higher use and a wide range of temperatures. “It’s more commercial stock versus sort of bespoke stock that Scaled put on at first.”

WhiteKnightTwo had been in the news earlier this month because of reports of defects in the wings, variously described as cracks or imperfections. Whitesides said the issue came up during the first annual inspection of the aircraft performed by Virgin Galactic; previous such inspections had been handled by Scaled. “To be honest, we’re, if anything, being overly careful,” he said. The imperfections, which he described as extra adhesive for the wing’s composite material sticking out, didn’t have flight implications, but Virgin decided to buff them out. “That work is nearly done,” he said

Whitesides also said that progress on an FAA launch license was continuing, while keeping an eye on some regulatory developments. Under current law, a company can’t have both an experimental permit (which SpaceShipTwo has, under Scaled’s name) and a full-fledged launch license; when the license is issued, the permit becomes defunct. Virgin supports legislation currently in the Senate that would allow companies to hold a permit and license for the same vehicle, using the permit for test flights and the license for commercial ones.

While it’s possible for a company to perform test flights under a license, Whitesides said that granting a license now, and thus canceling Scaled’s permit, would have contractual implications. “We’d have to accelerate the development contract that we’d have. We’d have to take over the spaceship earlier than we’d like. We want Scaled to finish the test flight program” under the current permit, he said. He hopes the legislation allowing companies to hold both a permit and a license becomes law before the FAA makes a final determination on its license application.

In addition to the engine work, SpaceShipTwo interior outfitting, and WhiteKnightTwo gear installation, Whitesides mentioned several other developments, including work on a new mission control, installation of an antenna for communications with the SpaceShipTwo, and a flight simulator. “We’ve got a lot of stuff going on right now,” he said.

It’s been a little more than a [...]]]>

SpaceShipTwo fires its hybrid rocket engine during its third powered test flight on January 10, 2014. The next powered test flight of the vehicle is unlikely to take place before some time in June as its carrier aircraft undergoes repairs, according to a report. (credit: Virgin Galactic)

It’s been a little more than a year since Virgin Galactic performed the first powered flight of SpaceShipTwo (SS2) in the skies above Mojave Air and Space Port in California on April 29, 2013. Since then, though, SS2 has made only two more powered flights: September 5 and January 10. While Virgin Galactic officials said at public forums in recent weeks that SS2 powered flights would resume soon, a new report suggests it may be some time before SS2 returns to the skies, let alone makes it into space.

According to a report in The Sunday Times of London today (subscription required), SS2’s carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), is grounded because of an issue with the aircraft’s carbon composite wings. The plane had been undergoing an annual inspection, as well as a replacement of its landing gear, when “defects” were found in the wings. The Times report cited sources that described the defects as “multiple cracks,” but Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides told the paper that they were “adhesive imperfections” created by extra glue sticking out where sections of the wing were joined together.

The co-author of the Times report, Doug Messier, publishes the Mojave-based Parabolic Arc that has closely tracked Virgin Galactic’s progress and setbacks. In a post this morning, he offers some more details about the wing issue, reporting that sources describe them as cracks (not, he notes, “imperfections”) running along the wing spars. “One particularly worrisome aspect is that nobody knows why or when they occurred,” he writes, adding that there is “some comfort in the repairs being made” because of Scaled Composites’ experience in repairing composite aircraft.

Be they cracks or imperfections, Whitesides said they had only a “negligible impact” on the strength of WK2’s long wing and the aircraft’s flying performance. The imperfections had been “buffed out” and the plane is scheduled to resume flights in the first week of June.

That schedule would suggest that the next opportunity for a powered flight of SS2 would not be until later in June, assuming that WK2 makes one or more test flights before carrying SS2 on a powered flight. That also assumes that SS2’s hybrid engine is ready as well: in the Times article, Whitesides said vibration issues with the motor had been resolved. (Messier reported Saturday that static engine tests continue, including one on Thursday.)

The Times article also raises another concern about Virgin Galactic. A copy of the customer contract obtained by the newspaper states that the company only guarantees to take people to an altitude of at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the Earth. That is below the “Kármán line” of 100 kilometers that used as the de facto boundary of space by many organizations, including the X PRIZE Foundation, who ran the Ansari X PRIZE won by SpaceShipOne in 2004. It’s also below what Virgin Galactic officials have publicly said as well, indicating that SS2 flights would go to at least 100 kilometers. The 50-mile mark, though, is the boundary used by NASA and the US Air Force in awarding astronaut wings, and the company told the Times “its goal was to reach 60 miles,” just below the 100-kilometer mark.

Virgin Galactic officials have, publicly, indicated that the company remains on track for flying into space later this year and beginning commercial flights before year’s end. Speaking at the American Astronautical Society’s Goddard Memorial Symposium outside Washington, DC, on March 6, Whitesides said that the company had been focused on outfitting the interior of SS2 while WK2 underwent an annual inspection. “We’re doing the groundwork for the fourth powered flight,” he said at the time. “We’ll have a few different flights before we get to the space altitude flight.” He didn’t specify when that next powered flight would take place.

At the Space Tech Expo conference in Long Beach, California, on April 3, Virgin Galactic vice president for special projects Will Pomerantz also didn’t provide details on when those powered test flights would resume, other than in the near future. “Our flights are scheduled to begin towards the end of this calendar year,” he said of when commercial service would begin.

Those initial commercial flights, though, may not carry tourists. Later in his Space Tech Expo presentation, Pomerantz said that “some of our first flights, perhaps our first commercial flights period, will be for NASA through the Flight Opportunities program, flying engineering and technology demonstration payloads.” He said later those flights would be dedicated flights—that is, no mixing of tourists and experiments—which could allow the company to build up more flight experience before ramping up tourist flights.

As recently as last week, Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson said the company was still on track to begin commercial SS2 flights—with him on board the first one—this year. “As always, safety will ultimately call the shots, but right now, I’m planning to go to space in 2014!” he told Reuters last week in an email.

In the Times article, though, Whitesides is more cautious. “We have got a good shot at getting Richard to space this year, but we are not going to be rushed,” he says. “We are doing it right and we are taking our time.”

“We’re late, there is no question,” he added.

All has been quiet on the SpaceShipTwo test flight front in recent weeks, after the vehicle’s third powered test flight a month ago and a glide test a week later. Despite the lack of public [...]]]>

SpaceShipTwo fires its hybrid rocket engine during its third powered test flight on January 10, 2014. (credit: Virgin Galactic)

All has been quiet on the SpaceShipTwo test flight front in recent weeks, after the vehicle’s third powered test flight a month ago and a glide test a week later. Despite the lack of public test activity—and continued speculation of problems with the vehicle’s development, including in a recent book—Sir Richard Branson remains confident that SpaceShipTwo will enter commercial service later this year, perhaps after just a few more test flights.

Branson, speaking at the 2014 United Arab Emirates Government Summit Monday in Dubai, said he was still confident that SpaceShipTwo would stary carrying customers on suborbital space tourism flights before the end of the year. “We have 300 engineers beavering away on it,” Branson said, according to Arabian Business. “We have two more test flights [and we should] go into space in three to four months time.”

Last May, Branson, also speaking in Dubai, said he expected to fly in space by Christmas 2013, a date that long since has come and gone. Yesterday, he said he would be worried if he doesn’t fly by the end of this year: “If myself and my family are not in space by the end of the year, I would be very, very worried.”

Branson, at a later event in Dubai, addressed criticism of Virgin Galactic in Tom Bower’s new book. “There are some people who seem to want things to fail and I think he falls into that category,” he said, Bloomberg News reported. “The best way of dealing with people like that is to prove them wrong and we will prove them wrong in the next few months.”

Branson also said Virgin was still planning to develop a spaceport in the UAE. “I hope we’ll have a space hub in Abu Dhabi in a couple of years,” he told the UAE publication The National. In April 2012, Virgin Galactic hired Steve Landeene, the former head of Spaceport America in New Mexico, as its “Chief Advisor, Spaceport Abu Dhabi”.

Virgin Galactic commercial director Stephen Attenborough, though, said that it would be some time before a formal announcement about the spaceport would be ready, and likely not until SpaceShipTwo begins commercial flights from Spaceport America. “Once that is established, we may seek the necessary US export approvals to operate from locations outside the US with Abu Dhabi as a likely first overseas base, should those approvals be forthcoming,” he told The National