Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo

2013

Back to the Virtual Aircraft Museum
  SUBORBITAL SPACEPLANEVirtual Aircraft Museum / USA / Scaled Composites  

Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo

The Model 339 SpaceShipTwo is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane designed for space tourism. It is carried to its launch altitude by a Scaled Composites White Knight Two, before being released to fly on into the upper atmosphere powered by its rocket engine. It then glides back to Earth and performs a conventional runway landing.

On 29 April 2013, after nearly three years of unpowered testing, the first SpaceShipTwo successfully performed its first powered test flight.

Virgin Galactic plans to operate a fleet of five SpaceShipTwo spaceplanes in a private passenger-carrying service and has been taking bookings for some time, with a suborbital flight carrying an updated ticket price of US$250,000. The spaceplane could also be used to carry scientific payloads for NASA and other organizations.

On 31 October 2014, during a test flight, the first SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise broke up in flight and crashed in the Mojave desert. A preliminary investigation suggested that the craft's descent device deployed too early. One pilot was killed; the other was seriously injured after parachuting from the stricken spacecraft.

The second SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, VSS Unity, made its first flight to space on 13 December 2018.

External links

Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo

Specification 
 CREW2
 PASSENGERS6
 ENGINE1 x RocketMotorTwo liquid/solid hybrid rocket engine
 WEIGHTS
  Loaded weight9740 kg21473 lb
 DIMENSIONS
  Wingspan8.3 m27 ft 3 in
  Length18.3 m60 ft 0 in
  Height5.5 m18 ft 1 in
 PERFORMANCE
  Max. speed4000 km/h2486 mph
  Ceiling110000 m360900 ft

Do you have any comments?

Name    E-mail


COMPANY
PROFILE


All the World's Rotorcraft


All rhe World's Rotorcraft AVIATION TOP 100 - www.avitop.com Avitop.com