I'm packing up to head to California for the rollout of
Virgin Galactic's
White Knight 2, built by
Scaled Composites.
White Knight 2 is a B-29-sized four-engine jet made of carbon fiber composites that was designed to carry an 8-seat spaceship called
SpaceShipTwo to high altitude. Once there, the spaceship will drop from between
White Knight 2's twin booms to fire its rocket engine for a Mach-3 run to space.
Virgin Galactic has already sold more than $20,000,000 worth of tickets to suborbital space at $200,000 each, and some of the future passengers will be on hand in Mojave for the unveiling, along with Virgin chief Richard Branson, White Knight and SpaceShip designer Burt Rutan, and a cadre of Virgin airline pilots training for the job of spaceline pilot.
The rollout is schedule for 7:30 a.m. Monday, July 28 in Mojave. Watch this space for my reporting on it.
Afterwards, Branson and Rutan are heading to the
EAA AirVenture Convention at Oshkosh, where they'll give a couple of presentations on
White Knight 2. Here's the schedule, as given to me by the Scaled media rep:
Presentation 1: Tuesday, July 29, Pavillion #7, 1:00 p.m.
Presentation 2: Tuesday, July 29 (same day), Theatre in the Woods, 9:00 p.m.
Unfortunately for Oshkosh attendees, the
White Knight 2 will stay behind in Mojave.
Labels: Oshkosh, Scaled Composites, Spaceflight, SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic, White Knight 2
I've just return from Mojave to Los Angeles via a specially chartered Virgin America flight for reporters to witness the rollout of Virgin Galactic's White Knight 2.
