At 2min 41s in the video above, care of Experimental Aircraft Association, Burt Rutan asks Sir Richard Branson about the prospects for developing an orbital system and Branson gives a cryptic answer
Rutan first spoke of an orbital version of this WhiteKnight, SpaceShipX launch system way back in 2004 when he visited the Royal Aeronautical Society
Thanks to Flightglobal freelancer Jeff Decker for pointing Hyperbola to this video
on August 5, 2009 7:32 PM | Reply
Would have liked to have heard the rest of Rutan's sentence on getting a single man to orbit "There are two ways [to do it?]..." perhaps we can get that?
on August 19, 2009 9:48 PM | Reply
Without Orbital Flights, the current venture is just a rich-man's roller-coaster ride. The main problem will be re-entry. The current Rutan designs won't work. But there's no reason why an orbital vehicle with boost stage can't be launched by a supersonic White Knight from say 90,000feet... as well as by a ground-based vertical launch as per current methods.