This is a nice break from creeping socialism.
VSS Enterprise completes her first captive carry…
Virgin Galactic announced today that VSS Enterprise has completed her inaugural captive carry flight from Mojave Air and Spaceport.
This very first captive carry was a huge success and both the mothership and spaceship looked absolutely stunning against the blue back drop of the Mojave skies.
Commenting on the historic flight, Burt Rutan said: “This is a momentous day for the Scaled and Virgin Teams. The captive carry flight signifies the start of what we believe will be extremely exciting and successful spaceship flight test program.”
Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Galactic added: “Seeing the finished spaceship in December was a major day for us but watching VSS Enterprise fly for the first time really brings home what beautiful, ground-breaking vehicles Burt and his team have developed for us. It comes as no surprise that the flight went so well; the Scaled team is uniquely qualified to bring this important and incredible dream to reality. Today was another major step along that road and a testament to US engineering and innovation.”
The VSS Enterprise test flight programme will continue though 2010 and 2011, progressing from captive carry to independent glide and then powered flight, prior to the start of commercial operations.
The Star Trek geek in me likes the name.
UPDATE: VIdeo!
Burt Rutan is the Chuck Norris of aerospace engineers. Look at that shit. No other engineer in the world would have dared hang that load from a single spar.
This is great news!
Gotta agree with pdb! And yes, it’s great news that commercial spaceflight is getting ‘off the ground’ so to speak…
There is hope for the future of space exploration, and lo and behold, the government ain’t it.
This is outstanding work by some of the best and brightest! Innovative, creative, and potentially very,very lucrative stuff…
We should therefore tax the everloving shit out of it until it ceases completely.