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Since rockets are so much fast than a conventional air craft its a must that you control the flight distances and path to a very tight measurement as that would lead to an air accident for sure.
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SpaceNut-
The pilots did an adequate job of handling the situation, as there were no injuries or even a passenger awareness that anything was out of the green. The spaceplane returned to the proper area and landed successfully.
I'm speaking out in defense of the pilots because I believe that both GW and I have FAA issued private pilot certificates.
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OF:
Never got past a student pilot ticket. Stroke stopped my flying. But, unlike most, I was flying a taildragger, and doing it rather well. The antique flying the antique, as it were.
I'm told that flying a taildragger requires significantly better stick-and-rudder flying skills. Dunno, taildraggers are almost everything I ever did fly, period. I knew nothing else.
GW
Last edited by GW Johnson (2021-09-05 11:31:24)
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
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GW-
In terms of flying/piloting skills, I achieved a Private Certificate, and with both High Performance and Complex endorsements. My heart attack 3 1/2 years ago nixed my Instrument rating as well as my Commercial certificate. I completed all the cross-country flight requirements for Commercial, including a 250 mile night cross country flight to Rapid City, SD and overflew Mt. Rushmore at night when it was fully illuminated.
I'm now medically grounded.
Last edited by Oldfart1939 (2021-09-05 18:53:36)
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I didn't officially start until I was already old. I inherited Dad's C-170 classic taildragger. I started flight training just before I turned 70. The stroke put a stop to that before I could get soloed.
I had informally flown many aircraft on several occasions when I was younger, including my Dad's original plane (a J-5 3-seat Cub) when I was a teenager. Not by myself you understand, that would have been illegal. One of these was a military DC-4 believe it or not.
Between my Dad's two planes that he rebuilt from wrecks, and my long association with aerospace defense, plus the fact that Dad and I both were aeronautical engineers, being around planes a lot just sort-of happened naturally.
I've been in the cockpit of EAA's B-17. It looked simple enough that I think I could have learned to fly it in about a day or three. Just like the C-170, but more levers to worry about. It's the same taildragger stick-and-rudder stuff, just bigger and slower to react to inputs.
GW
Last edited by GW Johnson (2021-09-06 09:42:26)
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
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Cleared to fly once more...
Virgin Galactic's rocket-powered space planes cleared to fly following FAA probe
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A comment here about an experience everyone here should undertake about aviation: a visit to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.
I did that about 12 years ago while working on my private certificate in Albany, Oregon. I drove there from where I was working at the time, and it was worth the drive and the entrance fees. The Main Building, at that time, had an awesome display dominated by the Howard Hughes Hercules--the Spruce Goose. Tucked under one wing of the airplane was an SR-71 "Blackbird," and next to it was a complete Martin Marietta Titan rocket lying on it's side so the engines could be examined. I also paid a few bucks for a complete interior tour of a fully restored B-17, and after talking with one of the docents about the Spruce Goose, shelled out $50 for a complete interior tour of it. That included--after talking nicely to the tour guide--was allowed to sit in the pilot's seat and hold the controls. What a thrill for a wannabe pilot! I had just soloed a few weeks earlier and was initially visiting McMinnville to scout the field for my big solo cross country flight required for the private certificate. This was even before the Leonardo DeCrappo movie "Aviator," the film about Howard Hughes.
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Virgin Orbit raises far less than expected from SPAC merger
https://spacenews.com/virgin-orbit-rais … ac-merger/
It’s unclear what near-term effects, if any, the shortfall in capital will have on Virgin Orbit, but it may require the company to seek additional funding through a secondary offering. In an August investor presentation, Virgin Orbit estimated needing $420 million in cash, starting in the second half of 2021, to reach positive cash flow in 2024.
Despite the reduced capital, executives with Virgin Orbit and NextGen hailed the completion of the merger. “The capital raised through this transaction, combined with our new access to the public markets, will enable us to scale rocket manufacturing and extend our space solutions business and product development while we continue to expand globally through key partnerships with customers worldwide,” Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said in a company statement.
“I’m thrilled to support Virgin Orbit as it becomes a publicly traded business and builds on the incredible successes that we’ve seen this year,” Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Orbit, said in the statement.
Branson and Virgin Orbit executives will celebrate going public with an “opening bell” ceremony at Nasdaq Jan. 7. That will take place days before the next Virgin Orbit launch, a mission called “Above the Clouds” and currently scheduled for no earlier than Jan. 12.
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So stocks being manipulated when the model of sales is not there for the customer base....
Image that goes with the articles suggests small payload to orbit...
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Virgin Galactic on schedule to start commercial human suborbital flights this year
https://spacenews.com/virgin-galactic-o … this-year/
In an earnings call after the release of Virgin Galactic’s fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021 financial results, executives said upgrades to the company’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane, VSS Unity, and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, remained on schedule to allow them to start commercial flights in the fourth quarter.
“We remain on track and on schedule to commence commercial service later this year,” Michael Colglazier, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said on the call. “We are making excellent progress on the enhancements to our mothership Eve and our spaceship Unity.”
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Poland, Virgin Orbit partner on Eastern Europe satellite launch initiative
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LauncherOne successfully reached orbit, and successfully deployed 10 cubesats, seems Branson is also owned by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.
Pegasus was also used to spy on Blue Origin Amazon's Jeff Bezos after the islamist Sharia Law crown-prince of Saudi Arabia, exchanged messages with him that exploited then-unknown vulnerabilities in WhatsApp.
That mohammedan islamic of Abu Dhabialso owns the 'Christian Rightwing' media app website called 'Telegram'. While there are some very corrupt suspicious people like Soros a globalist Hungarian Jew soulless type who attempted to break the Bank of England, you have corrupt money laundering pedo types in the Vatican and Blackmailed Royal types like Prince Andrew on some of these interweb sites much of what you see is fak, smoke and mirrors for a larger political agenda, you have Arabs running bots farms or uploading fake profiles trying to act like Rightwing Christians, fake Arabs with other fake faces trying to blame everything on Jews, they also bought into the spyware johnnycab style self-driving taxi service in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area called "Waymo One". They own a 7.5 percent share in the Carlyle Group, the little NeoCon shrub George W Bush Jnr served on the board of CaterAir, which was owned by the Carlyle Group, mohammedans had other trojan horse tricks they targeted human rights activists, helped kill journalists and targeted Princess Haya using the DeepState Pegasus Spyware, however the Leftwing these days is mostly focused on WASP White Christians or Russia Putin Russia, while the Right and tinseltown type like Lindsey Olin Graham keep pushing for Sharia Law censorship and blabbing on about CCP getting ready to Nuke the Universe.
Japanese radar constellation iQPS selects Virgin Orbit for 2023 launch
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Japa … h_999.html
Virgin Orbit (Nasdaq: VORB), a leading satellite launch provider, reports the signing of a launch services agreement with Japanese earth observation constellation operator Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. ("iQPS"). The satellite is expected to join Virgin Orbit's manifest for early 2023.
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-05-09 06:19:36)
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Virgin Orbit Eyes First Night Launch
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Virgin Orbit launches Space Force mission
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Virgin Galactic selects Aurora Flight Sciences to build new motherships
https://spacenews.com/virgin-galactic-s … therships/
Virgin Galactic said Aurora Flight Sciences will build two carrier aircraft, or motherships, that will succeed the original WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, called VMS Eve, that it has used for carrying SpaceShipTwo vehicles aloft on suborbital spaceflights. The companies did not disclose the value of the contract, but according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the contract includes a mix of fixed-price and time-and-materials task orders, with incentives to Aurora if it completes the planes on time, under budget or with improved performance.
Aurora will manufacture components of the aircraft at its factories in Columbus, Mississippi, and Bridgeport, West Virginia. Final assembly of the planes will take place at Virgin’s production facility in Mojave, California. The first plane is scheduled to enter service in 2025, but the companies did not disclose when the second plane will be completed. The contract also includes delivery of a static test article that Virgin Galactic can use for structural integrity analyses without taking the planes out of service, according to the SEC filing.
Virgin Galactic released few technical details about the new planes. The company described them as being easier to maintain than WhiteKnightTwo, which was built by Scaled Composites and started flying in 2008. That plane is currently in an extended maintenance period in Mojave for repairs and other upgrades that company officials previously said will improve its reliability and increase its flight rate.
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Virgin Orbit reduces launch forecast while increasing per-launch revenue
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J-Space partners with Virgin Orbit to bring sovereign air-launch capability to South Korea
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The UK Is Rejoining the Space Race
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/first-b … ite-launch
Virgin Orbit will launch satellites from the country for the first time, bringing orbital flight capability to Europe.
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Virgin Orbit, Spire Global sign multilaunch agreement
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First Virgin Orbit U.K. launch fails
https://spacenews.com/first-virgin-orbi … nch-fails/
“We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit. We are evaluating the information,” the company announced. The company provided no other information about the anomaly, including at what state of flight it took place and why the company incorrectly reported reaching orbit. It did confirm that that the Boeing 747 had landed safely back at Spaceport Cornwall.
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-01-12 12:21:28)
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Virgin Galactic's VMS Eve Mothership Completes Second Test Flight
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Virgin Galactic in final phases of return to flight
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Virgin Galactic to renew Spaceplane Flights
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Virgin Orbit suspends operations, in wake of failed orbital launch
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Virg … h_999.html
The company confirmed the "company-wide operational pause" to CNBC and the BBC while saying it would provide "an update on go-forward operations in the coming weeks."
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-03-17 05:55:46)
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SpaceShipTwo makes first flight in nearly two years
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