New Feather In SpaceShipTwo's Cap 42
Phoghat writes "Early on 4th May 2011, in the skies above Mojave Air and Spaceport CA, SpaceShipTwo, the world's first commercial spaceship, demonstrated its unique reentry 'feather' configuration for the first time. This test flight, the third in less than two weeks, marks another major milestone on the path to powered test flights and commercial operations. SpaceShipTwo (SS2), named VSS Enterprise, has now flown solo seven times since its public roll-out in December 2009 and since the completion of its ground and captive-carry test program."
Re:paging competent editors... (Score:4, Insightful)
unique (adj)
Being the only one of its kind;
unequaled,
Of a rare quality;
Unusual
There is more than one definition of unique. Something needs not be the only example of something to be unique.
[Citation Please] (Score:5, Insightful)
The accident you refer to [space.com] happened four years ago. A little over a year later Scaled Composites released their findings [spaceref.com] into the cause of the accident and shared everything they learned in how to more safely handle the materials they were using with the industry.
Since then I haven't heard of any accidents. So please inform us what other accidents have occured at Scaled Composites relating to the rocket motors.
Furthermore, I've love to hear about your sources that characterize the current state of Scaled Composites' rocket motor development as being "problematic".
I think your information is four years old. Scaled Composites already has a schedule in place that includes, later this year, firing the rocket motor in flight, possibly even putting SpaceShipTwo into space by the end of this year (but that will probably happen in early 2012). And by the end of 2012 we'll probably see the first paid flights.
The engines are fine.