Friday, May 29, 2009

Virgin Galactic announces engine tests

Heads-Up to the essential Jeff Foust
Personal Spaceflight

"Virgin Galactic announced this morning that the company has successfully carried out its first full-scale engine tests for SpaceShipTwo. Virgin released a video featuring the tests along with a press release:"



"Neither the video nor the press release provide much in the way of technical details about the engine tests, other than the engine is the largest hybrid engine of its type ever. Both do play up the “low environmental impact” of this propulsion system, and the potential applications beyond space tourism for future space transportation systems using such technology. (Server farms in space?)"

"Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn is scheduled to speak later this morning at the International Space Development Conference in Orlando. I’ll be there and report on any other announcements or developments he provides there."

Personal Spaceflight Article HERE.