VSS Enterprise

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VSS Enterprise
SpaceShip 2 VSS Enterprise.jpg
VSS Enterprise, the first SpaceShipTwo spaceplane, attached to its carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve
Type Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo
Manufacturer Scaled Composites
Construction number 1
Registration N339SS
First flight 10 October 2010 (manned gliding flight)

29 April 2013 (powered flight)
Owners and operators Virgin Galactic
Fate Crashed
31 October 2014

The VSS Enterprise (tail number: N339SS[1]) was the first SpaceShipTwo (SS2), built by Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic. As of 2004, it was planned to be the first of five commercial suborbital SS2 spacecraft planned by Virgin Galactic.[2][3][needs update] It was also the first ship of the Scaled Model 339 SpaceShipTwo class, based on upscaling the design of record-breaking SpaceShipOne.

The VSS Enterprise's name was an acknowledgement of the USS Enterprise from the Star Trek television series.[4] The spaceplane also shared its name with NASA's prototype space shuttle, as well as the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. It was rolled out on 7 December 2009.[5]

SpaceShipTwo made its first powered flight in April 2013. Richard Branson said it "couldn't have gone more smoothly".[6]

Enterprise was destroyed during a powered test flight on 31 October 2014, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.[7] An investigation revealed the accident was caused by premature deployment of the "feathering" system, the ship's descent device; the NTSB also faulted the spacecraft's design for lacking fail-safe mechanisms that could have deterred or prevented early deployment.[8][9][10]

Flight test program

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See also: VSS Voyager § Test flight program

Initial projections by Virgin Galactic in 2008 called for test flights to begin in late 2009 and commercial service to start in 2011.[11][12] This schedule was not achieved, with captive carry and glide flight tests beginning in 2010, and the first test flight under rocket power was not until 2013.

In October 2009, Virgin Galactic CEO Will Whitehorn outlined the flight test program for SpaceShipTwo. The test program includes seven phases:

  1. Vehicle ground testing
  2. Captive carry under White Knight Two
  3. Unpowered glide testing
  4. Subsonic testing with only a brief firing of the rocket
  5. Supersonic atmospheric testing
  6. Full flight into suborbital space
  7. Execute a detailed and lengthy appraisal process with the FAA/AST to demonstrate the system's robustness and eventually obtain a commercial launch license to begin commercial operations.[13]

On 22 March 2010, the SpaceShipTwo vehicle VSS Enterprise underwent a captive carry test flight, with the parent White Knight Two aircraft, VMS Eve, performing a short flight while carrying the Enterprise.[14] A second test flight was made on 16 May 2010,[15] reaching SS2's launch altitude (51,000 feet) and lasting nearly five hours, in order to facilitate "cold soak" testing of SS2's avionics and pressurization system. Thereafter, "a simulated spaceship descent/glide mission was made from [launch] altitude."[16] Between these two flights, the SpaceShipTwo airframe was modified by the addition of two interior fins, with one fin being added to the inside (rocket-side) of each of the craft's twin vertical stabilizers.[17]

On 15 July 2010, VSS Enterprise made its first crewed flight. The craft remained attached to VMS Eve as planned, and underwent a series of combined vehicle systems tests. The flight lasted a total of 6 hours and 21 minutes. A second, similar crewed flight of VSS Enterprise and VMS Eve was carried out on 30 September 2010, lasting approximately 5 hours. Among the objectives of these flights was the improvement of pilot proficiency, and the results of the flights were deemed to show that the systems were capable of supporting future glide missions.[15]

On 10 October 2010, VSS Enterprise made its first manned gliding test flight. It was released from VMS Eve at 13700 m feet and glided to a safe landing at the Mojave Air and Spaceport.[18][19][20] A second gliding test flight took place on 28 October 2010[21] and a third on 17 November 2010.[22] As of December 2010, Scaled reported that the flight test program is exceeding expectations.[23] The fourth test flight took place on 13 January 2011,[24] while the fifth and sixth glide flights occurred on 22 and 27 April 2011, respectively.[15] Following this, the feathered reentry configuration was tested in flight on 4 May 2011,[15] with weekly test flights continuing through the end of May.[15] On 9 June 2011, SS2 failed to separate from White Knight Two during its 11th planned glide flight due to a technical problem.[15] Testing resumed with five successful glide flights in June 2011.[15]

In July 2011, after 15 successful glide flights, flight testing of SS2 was halted for two months while planned revisions to the spaceplane were made.[25] Flight tests resumed in late September 2011, although the 16th glide flight – on 29 September – was marred by a brief loss of control aboard SS2, forcing the crew to utilise the feathered wing configuration to land safely.[26][27] This test was followed by another hiatus, during which some of the spacecraft's engine components were installed.[28] In June 2012, Scaled Composites received an FAA permit to conduct rocket-powered supersonic test flights.[29] SpaceShipTwo flight tests resumed in June 2012.[28][30]

In September 2012, Virgin Galactic announced that the unpowered subsonic glide flight test program was essentially complete. The company thereafter stated its intention to fit the hybrid rocket motor and control system to the vehicle, before resuming the glide flight test program with the rocket motor installed, in order to recharacterize the spacecraft's glide performance with slightly different weight distribution and aerodynamics.[31] In October 2012, Scaled Composites installed key components of the rocket motor, and SpaceShipTwo performed its first glide flight with the engine installed in December 2012.[32][33]

The spacecraft's first powered test flight took place on 29 April 2013, briefly driving SpaceShipTwo to a supersonic velocity.[34][35][36] Richard Branson said it "couldn't have gone more smoothly".[6]

On 5 September 2013, the second powered flight was made by the SpaceShipTwo. It broke the sound barrier achieving a speed of mach 1.43, and climbed to 69.000 feet (21 km) over the Mojave Desert under rocket power and descended using its tilt-wing "feathering" maneuver.[37] Space journalist Doug Messier reported that "the engine plume featured white smoke, not the black smoke seen on the April flight."[38]

On 10 January 2014, the third powered flight climbed higher than the previous flights, testing a new coating on the tail boom and other systems.[39]

List of test flights

Sources: [15][30][32][40][41][42][43]

Flight designation Date Duration Maximum altitude Top speed Pilot / co-pilot Feathered (Fxx)
 ?? / PF04 31 October 2014 Siebold / Alsbury[44] Vehicle destroyed following in-flight breakup
170 / GF30[45] 7 October 2014 10 min, 30 sec Siebold / Sturckow[46] F10
164 / CF02[47] 28 August 2014 13 min Siebold / Alsbury
156 / GF29[47] 29 July 2014 12 min Masucci / Siebold
149 / GF28 17 January 2014 14 min, 12 sec Siebold / Sturckow
147 / PF03 10 January 2014 12 min, 43 sec[34] 22,000 meters (72,000 ft)[39] 1.4 Mach Mackay / Stucky[48] F09
141 / GF27 11 December 2013. 11 min ? ? Stucky / Masucci None
132 / PF02 5 September 2013 14 min 21,000 meters (69,000 ft) 1.43 Mach Stucky / Nichols F08
131 / GF26[34] 8 August 2013 10 min ? ? Stucky / Mackay F07
130 / GF25[34] 25 July 2013 11 min, 52 sec ? ? Stucky / Mackay None
115 / PF01[35][49] 29 April 2013 13 min[34] 17,130 meters (56,200 ft)[34] Mach 1.22[34] Stucky / Alsbury[34] None
114 / CF01 12 April 2013 10 min, 48 sec  ?  ? Stucky / Alsbury None
113 / GF24 3 April 2013 9 min  ?  ? Stucky / Nichols F06
109 / GF23 19 December 2012 13 min, 24 sec  ?  ? Stucky / Alsbury None
93 / GF22 11 August 2012 8 min, 2 sec  ?  ? Stucky / Binnie None
92 / GF21 7 August 2012 9 min, 52 sec  ?  ? Siebold / Colmer F05
91 / GF20 2 August 2012 8 min  ?  ? Stucky / Nichols F04
90 / GF19 18 July 2012 10 min, 39 sec  ?  ? Siebold / Nichols None
88 / GF18 29 June 2012 13 min  ?  ? Stucky / Mackay None
87 / GF17 26 June 2012 11 min, 22 sec  ?  ? Siebold / Alsbury None
73 / GF16 29 September 2011 7 min, 15 sec  ?  ? Stucky / Nichols F03
68 / GF15 27 June 2011 7 min, 39 sec  ?  ? Siebold / Binnie None
67 / GF14 23 June 2011 7 min, 33 sec  ?  ? Stucky / Nichols None
66 / GF13 21 June 2011 8 min, 55 sec  ?  ? Siebold / Nichols None
65 / GF12 15 June 2011 10 min, 32 sec  ?  ? Stucky / Nichols None
64 / GF11 14 June 2011 13 min, 18 sec  ?  ? Siebold / Shane None
62 / (CC12) 9 June 2011 N/A (release failure) Planned glide test flight N/A Siebold / Shane None
61 / GF10 25 May 2011 10 min, 14 sec Above 15,240 m (50,000 ft)  ? Stucky / Binnie F02
60 / GF09 19 May 2011 11 min, 32 sec  ?  ? Siebold / Binnie None
59 / GF08 10 May 2011 13 min, 2 sec  ?  ? Stucky / Shane None
58 / GF07 4 May 2011 11 min, 5 sec 15,697 m (51,500 ft) 4,724 m per min (15,500 ft per min) Siebold / Nichols F01
57 / GF06 27 April 2011 16 min, 7 sec  ?  ? Stucky / Alsbury None
56 / GF05 22 April 2011 14 min, 31 sec  ?  ? Siebold / Shane None
47 / GF04 13 January 2011 11 min, 34 sec  ? 250 kn EAS 3.8 g Stucky / Nichols None
45 / GF03 17 November 2010 11 min, 39 sec  ? 246 kn EAS 3.5 g Siebold / Nichols None
44 / GF02 28 October 2010 10 min, 51 sec  ? 230 kn EAS 3 g Stucky / Alsbury None
41 / GF01 10 October 2010 13 min 14,020 m (46,000 ft) 180 kn EAS 2 g Siebold / Alsbury None
GFxx=Glide Flight
CCxx=Captive Carry Flight
CFxx=Cold Flow Flight
PFxx=Powered Flight

Crash

NTSB Go-Team inspects a tail section of VSS Enterprise

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Main article: VSS Enterprise crash

On 31 October 2014, Enterprise broke apart in flight during a powered test flight over California's Mojave Desert.[50][51][52] The flight began smoothly, with Enterprise being dropped from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier and igniting its engine at an altitude of 50,000 feet.[50] However, about 60 to 90 seconds into the flight, an "anomaly" was reported which resulted in destruction of the ship.[50] One pilot escaped from the craft and parachuted to safety, while the other pilot did not survive the crash.[50][10]

The National Transportation Safety Board conducted an independent investigation into the accident. In July 2015, the NTSB released a report which cited inadequate design safeguards, poor pilot training, lack of rigorous federal oversight and a potentially anxious co-pilot without recent flight experience as important factors in the crash.[10] The NTSB determined that the crash resulted from the pilot's premature deployment of the feathering mechanism, which is normally used to aid in a safe descent. However, the NTSB also faulted the ship's designers for failing to protect against human error, noting that the spacecraft lacked fail-safe systems that would have prevented or deterred a premature deployment of the feathering mechanism.[10] The NTSB recommended that the FAA establish human factors guidance specific to commercial spaceflight operators and create a more rigorous application process for experimental spaceflight permits.[10]

Gallery

  • Virgin Galactic VSS ''Enterprise''

  • Enterprise in flight slung under VMS Eve

  • Enterprise under construction and under wraps in 2008

  • A 3-view of the SS2

See also

References

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External links

Spacecraft named Enterprise
NASA Space Shuttle (1976–1985) • Virgin Space Ship (2009–2014) • Star Trek starships (Fictional)
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  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 34.5 34.6 34.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  43. ↑ SpaceShipTwo (SS2) History, skyrocket.de
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