VSS Enterprise

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VSS Enterprise (center) attached to the White Knight Two carrier aircraft
The first SpaceShipTwo, which will be named VSS Enterprise , covered and 60% completed during the rollout of the VMS Eve
The VSS Enterprise from aft

The VSS Enterprise ( aircraft registration number N339SS) was the first commercial spacecraft from Virgin Galactic and the first spacecraft of the SpaceShipTwo class. It was based on an enlarged version of the SpaceShipOne . The VSS Enterprise was initially supposed to start operation in 2013, later summer 2014 was given as the date. The flights should take off from Spaceport America at Upham in the American state of New Mexico . In October 2014, however, the spacecraft crashed on a test flight, in which one of the two pilots was also killed.

The name of the spaceplane should be reminiscent of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek , where the "VSS" stands for "Virgin Space Ship".

Performed flights

The maiden flight of the VSS Enterprise took place on March 22, 2010 together with the carrier aircraft VMS Eve of the White Knight Two class up to an altitude of around 14,000 meters. The first manned flight of the spacecraft took place on July 15, also without decoupling from the carrier aircraft. The first free flight of the VSS Enterprise took place on October 10, 2010, the first flight with spring mode in May 2011. The first flight with a rocket engine took place in April 2013, with Mach 1.22 being reached.

On October 31, 2014, the VSS Enterprise crashed during a test flight and was destroyed. The copilot Michael Alsbury was killed, while the pilot Peter Siebold was able to save himself seriously injured.

Others

Richard Branson , the head of Virgin Galactic, offered William Shatner , who played Captain Kirk in the television series Starship Enterprise and in several Star Trek movies, free participation in the first tourist flight of the VSS Enterprise. However, Shatner declined in 2006, saying:

"I do want to go up but I need guarantees I'll definitely come back."

"I want to go up there, but I need the guarantee that I will definitely come back."

- William Shatner

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ FAA Registry
  2. ^ "Virgin Galactic to Offer Public Space Flights" . In: Space.com . Associated Press. September 27, 2004. Archived from the original on September 29, 2004. Retrieved on August 12, 2008.
  3. ^ Rob Coppinger: SpaceShipTwo's mothership maiden flight on Flightglobal.com, December 21, 2008
  4. ^ John Schwartz: Entrepreneur Unveils New Tourist Spacecraft . In: New York Times , January 23, 2008. Retrieved August 12, 2008. 
  5. ↑ a b Space tourism: “SpaceShipTwo” completes its first test flight. In: Spiegel online. March 23, 2010, accessed March 4, 2013 .
  6. ^ "SpaceShipTwo" . In: SpaceTourism.ws . Archived from the original on October 17, 2008. Retrieved on August 12, 2008.
  7. ↑ VSS Enterprise Makes First Crewed Flight. Virgin Galactic, accessed July 17, 2010 .
  8. ↑ SpaceShipTwo makes first free flight. Flugrevue, October 11, 2010, archived from the original on November 11, 2011 ; Retrieved October 12, 2010 .
  9. ↑ Günther Glatzel: SpaceShipTwo for the first time in "Federflug". In: Raumfahrer.net. May 5, 2011, accessed March 4, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Scaled pilot Michael Alsbury Dies in SpaceShipTwo Explosion; Peter Siebold in Hospital. In: Parabolic Arc. Scaled Composites, November 1, 2014, accessed April 20, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Captain Kirk reveals he won't go boldly into space . In: Daily Mail , dailymail.co.uk, September 6, 2006. Retrieved August 12, 2008.