Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo hit another milestone on its way to starting up commercial operations to suborbital space. Space Ship Two's last flight pictures revealed and amazed whole world. The 8 seat spacecraft demonstrated its re-entry "feather" configuration for the first time as Virgin Galactic and builder Scaled Composites work the system through a series of test flights in Mojave, California. SpaceShipTwo (SS2), named VSS Enterprise, has conducted a total of seven glide tests since its public rollout in December 2009. WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft VMS Eve taking SS2 up to 51000 feet for release. SS2 then got into a stable glide before going into its re-entry "feather" configuration by rotating the tale section upward to about a 65 degree angle from the center of the aircraft. The "feather" configuration keeps SS2 stable without spinning as it descends almost vertically, slowed by what the company calls a "shuttlecock-like" drag created by the raised tail section. The first feather test took place for about a minute and a quarter. At around 33500 feet, the test pilots reconfigured SS2 back to normal glide configuration and executed a normal runway touchdown. The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is a suborbital, air-launched spaceplane for carrying space tourists, under development by The Spaceship Company, a joint venture between Scaled Composites and the Virgin Group, as part of the Tier 1b program. SpaceShipTwo is carried aloft by the ...
