Revived SpaceShipTwo

The company Virgin Galactic has introduced a new model of the tourist rocket glider SpaceShipTwo. The previous unit collapsed in the air in the fall of 2014 due to pilot error ( but not only ). This model repeats the design of the previous one. Let's hope that it provides protection against errors, and increased reliability.



The rocket launcher should launch from under the wing of the White Knight aircraft at an altitude of 15 km and rise above 100 km thanks to a hybrid rocket engine. Return will be in planning mode. Six passengers will be able to look at Earth from the side and can be considered as people who have made a space flight.
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The previous model before the accident reached the stage of fire flight tests but could not rise above 22 kilometers. Revealed a problem with the instability of the hybrid engine. The peculiarity of this engine is that its fuel is solid - rubber, and the oxidizer is liquid nitrous oxide. In the last flight, a new fuel was tested - plastic. The engine started well, but the pilot for some reason unlocked the aerodynamic stabilizer, which is used only during the descent. This mistake killed both the rocket glider and the pilot.








Source: dailymail.co.uk

Now Virgin Galactic relies on the fact that a large number of tests will be conducted with the new device. They have already checked the components separately, now it's time for complex tests. First, there will be work on the ground: they will check the power supply system, test the reliability of the attachment to the aircraft carrier. Therefore, there will be starts without turning on the rocket engine - they will work out the first stage of launch and landing. And only then will they proceed to flying with rocket propulsion. I think at that rate the first tourist will go into space no sooner than in two years, at best.

The cost of tickets is called $ 250 thousand dollars. Currently, several dozen tickets have been purchased by pre-orders.











The new rocket plane has its own name VSS Unity, at the suggestion of Stephen Hawking, who also expects to fly.

In the future, this technology is considered as a means for the implementation of hypersonic passenger flights through the near cosmic space. Tourist flights must work out the technology.