Recently in Virgin Galactic Category

credit: Virgin Galactic / caption: why the straigth wing and v-tail?

This design for Virgin Galactic's mini satellite launching rocket LauncherOne was shown by the company's small satellite launch general manager Adam Baker at the 60th International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, Korea in October. For a more colourful LauncherOne design click through to the extended portion of this blog post

Watch this video of the Internatonal Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, Korea where Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn, Sierra Nevada vice president Mark Sirangelo, the FAA's head of commercial space transportation George Nield and New Mexico space grant consortium director Pat Hynes spoke about private access to space

Go here for more IAC2009 videos

Inflatable domes, laser lights, a sunset and documentary film makers could all be features of Virgin Galactic's Monday 7 December roll-out of its SpaceShipTwo at Scaled Composites' Mojave air and spaceport hangars in California - above SS2 is filmed by Hyperbola on 28 July 2008 at Scaled's facility

credit: IAF/KARI

So Hyperbola has finally touched down in Daejeon in south Korea, after a scorching reentry from the Oort cloud, or was that just the effect of the Korean spicy Kimchi pickle and the even more spicy red pepper paste, Kochu Chang, they put on most of their food?

Either way it is a countdown now to the start of the 60th International Astronautical Congress and the space agencies' plenary session, so expect pictures and pithy comment from this blog as the week unfolds with everything from grand human exploration visions to suborbital tourism

But it won't end with Hyperbola's Asiana flight out of Seoul next weekend, oh no, the international space theme continues with the AIAA/DLR International hypersonics and spaceplanes conference in Bremen, Germany next week

Hyperbola is launching to the Oort cloud for a week's R&R from today and will be returning via Daejeon, Korea from the 12 October. In Daejeon Hyperbola will be blogging from the International Astronautical Congress, where the world's space community meets. And yes there may even be Virgin Galactic news there...

Scroll down the menu above to find Flightglobal's videos, all 13 of them, of Virgin Galactic activity at the Experimental Aircraft Association Airventure Oshkosh 2009 air show

credit Flight / caption: This is how WK2's rudder looked earlier this year

In its 23 April statement Scaled Composites said of WK2's development "We concluded the rudder aerodynamic modification tasks following flight 3", which maybe true, and while talking to reporters at Airventure Oshkosh air show on Monday 27 July Scaled's founder and chief engineer Burt Rutan discussed this but there have been further changes to the mothership's tail fin assembly, as can be seen in the pictures in this blog post

The above picture is how Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnight Two's rudder was earlier this year (and this rudder configuration was the same immediately after the June Mojave-Phoenix Mesa Gateway-Las Cruces, New Mexico flights) and below is a cropped picture taken by Hyperbola of the mothership while she sat in Aeroshell square at the Airventure Oshkosh air show on 29 July 2009


credit Flight / caption: the whole bottom of the rudder has been modified with mystery cables to boot 

Hyperbola has heard that following the rocket motor tests that Virgin Galactic publicised with videos earlier this year (and its prime contractor Scaled Composites reported on its online test logs) work is focusing on the flight weight engine

In all rocket engine projects intending to fly something there are engineering development units that are used so the design can be tested while components may be at an earlier level of maturity, earlier than they have to be come the final flying version

But eventually the development work has to approach the mass and performance engine targets required of the propelled vehicle

Hyperbola understands that testing and firings are ongoing and that while the Scaled test logs web page has not been updated since 20 May more videos and test logs can be expected later this year, in a few months time

Around the time the prototype SpaceShip Two will be rolled out for its unveiling and first captive carry flight on its mothership WhiteKnight Two Eve perhaps?

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

credit FAA / caption: Babbitt gets a tour of WK2

New US Federal Aviation Administration administrator J. Randolph "Randy" Babbitt got a tour of Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnight Two at EAA Airventure Oshkosh last week. His agency's office of commercial space transportation will have to certify the mothership as a launch platform for SpaceShip Two and award Virgin Galactic its permits for flying its customers to above 100km (62miles)