Roll Out! White Knight Two

SpaceShip One

Sir Richard Branson is a crazy mo-fo who is willing to take risks and risks he will take in the upcoming years. This morning, I was invited to travel to the Mojave to witness the roll-out of the White Knight Two aka the “Mothership” that will take Branson’s Virgin brand to new heights…literally.

Back in 2004, a company called Scaled Composites won the coveted Ansari X Prize (worth $10 M) and caught the eye of Virgin owner and eccentric billionaire, Richard Branson. Together Scaled and Virgin came up with what is now known as Virgin Galactic. Starting in 2005, VG started to take reservations for the first ever commercial, suborbital space flights with tickets starting at $200,000 (mere pennies). And now, with over 270 firm reservations in hand and the Spaceship Two near completion, this “future is now” situation is coming to a head.

So I flew out to the Mojave (courtesy of Virgin America! WOOT! EleVAte!) at 6:00 am with coffee in one hand and a camera in the other to attend the press conference and roll-out of the White Knight Two. The deal with the WK2 is this…VG space flights (due to launch in 2009) are not ground launches, like the standard NASA space shuttles. It is a mid air launch that requires a vessel to carry Spaceship Two up to 50,000 ft. , where upon the SS2 will release from the mothership aka WK2 and launch mid-air, thrusting at 3 Gs into suborbital space (approx. 63 miles above the Earth’s sea level). Once in space, passengers will get to experience weightlessness, do somersaults, throw up M&Ms, etc. etc. and then after a few moments, some photos and the amazingness of seeing the Earth from above..you basically free fall back to Earth at around 6-7 Gs of pull. Gnarly, right? Yeah, well unlike the NASA shuttle re-entry system, that is majorly faulty due to the necessary precision that goes into it, the SS2 can fall back to Earth at literally any angle (even upside down!) and the break through feathering system will automatically self-correct the craft to make a clean re-entry. Easy peasy.

So, this morning was super awesome. We were flown on Virgin America’s newest member “My Other Ride Is A Spaceship” out to the Mojave from LAX to a press conference in the main Scaled Composites hanger. The original White Knight One was behind us and Space Ship Two was hidden under a black sheet next to us. CEO’s from Virgin Galactic and Virgin America spoke and then with some dramatic music and the falling of a huge white curtain, White Knight Two was unveiled with Branson and Rhutan hanging out of the windows waving! It was hilarious. After a short Q&A we were free to take a look at WK2 and talk to Branson, Rhutan and (drum roll, please………) BUZZ ALDRIN! Holy smokes, I met Buzz Aldrin! All in all it was an amazing morning. It was so inspirational to be apart of and witness such a groundbreaking roll out. I mean, this is, I think, where space travel wanted to go so long ago and now it’s finally getting there. There is still a lot to be done as far as testing and such, but according to the press conference today, they are hoping to get peeps in space as early as 2009…Get ready everyone, your childhood dreams are about to come true

White Knight Two

www.virgingalactic.com