VSS Enterprise GF28

Overview

Destination: Suborbital
Mission: Test Flight

Suborbital Mojave Air and Space Port Air launch to Suborbital flight

Free glide test flight of VSS Enterprise.

SpaceShipTwo

Family: SpaceShipTwo
Configuration:

The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic.

Specifications
  • Stages
    1
  • Length
    18.0 m
  • Diameter
    8.2 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    9 T
  • Thrust
    310 kN
Family
  • Name
    SpaceShipTwo
  • Family
    SpaceShipTwo
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    SpaceShipTwo
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

VSS Enterprise


Active Human Rated Crew On-board: 2 Crew Capacity: 8
Destination: Suborbital
Serial Number: N339SS

VSS Enterprise was the first SpaceShipTwo (SS2) spaceplane, 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. Enterprise was destroyed during a powered test flight on 31 October 2014, killing one pilot, Michael Alsbury, and seriously injuring another, Peter Siebold. 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.

SpaceShipTwo Details

Crew


David Mackay

Pilot - British - ( VG )

Status: Active

Date of Birth: Jan. 1, 1957
Age: 66

Mark Stucky

Pilot - American - ( VG )

Status: Retired

Date of Birth: Nov. 9, 1958
Age: 64

Virgin Galactic

Circle Image
Founder: Richard Branson Founded: 2004 Successes: 58 Failures: 5 Pending: 1

Agency Type: Private

Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company within the Virgin Group. It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two.

INFO WIKI

Air launch to Suborbital flight

Mojave Air and Space Port


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Long March 2D
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1 week ago
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Launch Complex 3 (LC-3/LA-1) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Chinese reconnaissance satellites.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
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Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


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1 week, 2 days ago
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Firefly Alpha
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1 week, 2 days ago
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Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 5 days ago
Starlink Group 7-2
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 21 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


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2 weeks ago
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Long March 6A
Success
2 weeks ago
Yaogan 40
Launch Complex 9A - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

3 Chinese reconnaissance satellites of unknown purposes, officially reported as for "Electromagnetic environment probing" purposes.