Manufacturer The Spaceship Company Registration N202VG | Construction number 2 | |
 | ||
First flight 8 September 2016 (captive carry flight); 3 December 2016 (glide flight) Similar LauncherOne, New Shepard, Space Shuttle Enterprise, Kounotori 6, SpaceX Dragon | ||
Virgin galactic s newest spacecraft vss unity
VSS Unity (Tail number: N202VG), previously referred to as VSS Voyager, is a SpaceShipTwo-class suborbital rocket-powered manned spaceplane. It is the second SpaceShipTwo to be built, and will be used as part of the Virgin Galactic Fleet.
Contents
- Virgin galactic s newest spacecraft vss unity
- Virgin spaceship unity reveal vss unity
- Overview
- History
- Test flight program
- References
The spacecraft was rolled out on 19 February 2016, and completed ground-based system integration testing in September 2016, prior to its first flight on 8 September 2016.
Virgin spaceship unity reveal vss unity
Overview
VSS Unity, the second SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane for Virgin Galactic, is the first SpaceShipTwo built by The Spaceship Company. The ship's name was announced on 19 February 2016. Prior to the naming announcement, the craft was referred to as SpaceShipTwo, Serial Number Two. There was speculation in 2004 that Serial Number Two would be named VSS Voyager, an unofficial name that was repeatedly used in media coverage. The name Unity was chosen by British physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking's eye is also used as the model for the eye logo on the side of Unity.
History
The manufacture of Unity began in 2012. The spacecraft's registration, N202VG, was filed in September 2014. As of early November 2014, the build of Unity was about 90 percent structurally complete, and 65 percent complete overall. As of April 2015, Unity was approximately 75% complete, and initial ground tests were projected to be able to begin as early as late 2015, after being projected as early as mid-2015 as of November 2014. On 21 May 2015, Unity reached the milestone of bearing the weight of the airframe on its own wheels. The spaceship was unveiled at a rollout event on 19 February 2016, as Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson had projected in November 2015; ground and flight testing commenced thereafter.
VSS Unity is the second SpaceShipTwo to be completed; the first, VSS Enterprise, was destroyed in a crash in late October 2014.
After rollout and unveiling, a phase of testing called "Integrated Vehicle Ground Testing" began on VSS Unity in February 2016.
Test flight program
VSS Unity will undergo a test regimen similar to VSS Enterprise, then will embark on testing beyond what Enterprise experienced. The test flights are expected to be fewer, as Enterprise has already tested the design's responses under numerous conditions. For each flight test, the White Knight Two aircraft carries Unity to altitude. Testing began with captive carry flights, in which Unity was not released from its carrier aircraft. Testing then progressed to free-flight glide testing, and will continue with powered test flights. It is possible that only 2-3 flights under each regime previously tested will be performed, instead of the 5 or 10 that Enterprise performed.
On 8 September 2016, Virgin Galactic commenced flight testing of Unity with a captive-carry flight. On 1 November 2016, Virgin Galactic conducted another captive-carry flight of Unity but cancelled the glide portion of the flight because of wind speed. On 3 November and 30 November, additional captive-carry flights took place.
On 3 December 2016, Unity completed its first glide flight. It completed subsequent glide tests later in December, 2016, and in February, 2017.