The Scaled Composites Model 348 White Knight Two ( WK2 ) is a quadjet cargo aircraft that was used to lift the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) spacecraft to release altitude. It was developed by Scaled Composites from 2007 to 2010 as the first stage of Tier 1b , a two-stage to suborbital-space crewed launch system. WK2 is based on the successful mothership to SpaceShipOne , White Knight , which itself was based on Proteus .
31-419: With an " open architecture " design and explicit plans for multi-purpose use, the aircraft could also operate as a zero-g aircraft for passenger training or microgravity science flights, handle missions in high-altitude testing more generally, or be used to launch payloads other than SpaceShipTwo. A study of use of the aircraft as a forest fire water bomber has also been mentioned, one that would utilize
62-510: A completely new light." On March 22, 2010 the VMS Eve completed its 25th flight, the first occasion it carried a SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise . In a flight of 2 hours 54 minutes, it ascended to an altitude of 45,000 ft (14,000 m). The launch customer of White Knight Two was Virgin Galactic , which was planned to have the first two units, and exclusive rights to the craft for
93-466: A large carbon composite water tank that could be quickly replenished to make repeat runs over fires. The first White Knight Two is named VMS Eve after Richard Branson 's mother Eve Branson ; it was officially unveiled on July 28, 2008, and flew for the first time on December 21, 2008. The second was expected to be named VMS Spirit of Steve Fossett after Branson's close friend Steve Fossett , who died in an aircraft accident in 2007. As of 2024, it
124-417: A powered test flight over California's Mojave Desert. The flight began smoothly, with Enterprise being dropped from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier and igniting its engine at an altitude of 50,000 feet (15,000 m). About 60 to 90 seconds into the flight, an "anomaly" was reported that resulted in destruction of the ship. The pilot in command, Peter Siebold , escaped from the craft and parachuted to safety;
155-664: A proprietary bus standard such as that used on the Apple II , with up to a dozen slots that allow multiple hardware manufacturers to produce add-ons, and for the user to freely install them. By contrast, closed architectures, if they are expandable at all, have one or two "expansion ports" using a proprietary connector design that may require a license fee from the manufacturer, or enhancements may only be installable by technicians with specialized tools or training. Computer platforms may include systems with both open and closed architectures. The Mac mini and Compact Macintosh are closed;
186-459: A safe landing at the Mojave Air and Spaceport. A second gliding test flight took place on 28 October 2010 and a third on 17 November 2010. As of December 2010 , Scaled reported that the flight test program was exceeding expectations. The fourth test flight took place on 13 January 2011, while the fifth and sixth glide flights occurred on 22 and 27 April 2011, respectively. Following this,
217-523: A short flight while carrying the Enterprise . A second test flight was made on 16 May 2010, reaching SS2's launch altitude (51,000 feet) and lasting nearly five hours, in order to facilitate "cold soak" testing of SS2's avionics and pressurization system. Thereafter, "a simulated spaceship descent/glide mission was made from [launch] altitude." Between these two flights, the SpaceShipTwo airframe
248-549: Is a type of computer architecture or software architecture intended to make adding, upgrading, and swapping components with other computers easy. For example, the IBM PC , Amiga 2000 and Apple IIe have an open architecture supporting plug-in cards, whereas the Apple IIc computer has a closed architecture . Open architecture systems may use a standardized system bus such as S-100 , PCI or ISA or they may incorporate
279-556: Is not clear if any other SS2 and WK2 vehicles than VSS Enterprise , VSS Unity and VMS Eve will actually be built (especially, as of 2024, VMS Spirit of Steve Fossett has not been built). In 2008, Virgin Galactic ordered two White Knight Two vehicles. Together, WK2 and SS2 were to form the basis for Virgin Galactic 's fleet of suborbital spaceplanes. In November 2010, The Spaceship Company had announced that it planned to build at least three additional White Knight Two aircraft and an additional five SpaceShipTwo rocket planes,
310-434: Is roughly three times larger than White Knight in order to perform a captive flight with the larger SpaceShipTwo spacecraft. The WK2 is similar in wingspan to a Boeing B-29 Superfortress . White Knight Two is a very modern aircraft, as even the flight control cables are constructed of carbon fiber, using a new patented design. WK2 was planned to provide preview flights offering several seconds of weightlessness before
341-555: The Macintosh II and Power Mac G5 are open. Most desktop PCs are open architecture. Similarly, an open software architecture is one in which additional software modules can be added to the basic framework provided by the architecture. Open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to major software products are the way in which the basic functionality of such products can be modified or extended. The Google APIs are examples. A second type of open software architecture consists of
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#1732772991282372-576: The Mojave Desert under rocket power and descended using its tilt-wing "feathering" maneuver. Space journalist Doug Messier reported that "the engine plume featured white smoke, not the black smoke seen on the April flight." On 10 January 2014, the third powered flight climbed higher than the previous flights, testing a new coating on the tail boom and other systems. Sources: On 31 October 2014, Enterprise broke apart in flight during
403-452: The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise . It was rolled out on 7 December 2009. SpaceShipTwo made its first powered flight in April 2013. Richard Branson said it "couldn't have gone more smoothly". Enterprise was destroyed during a powered test flight on 31 October 2014, killing one pilot, Michael Alsbury , and seriously injuring another, Peter Siebold . This was the first spacecraft-related accident in which part, but not all, of
434-477: The aircraft to be built by Virgin after the initial prototypes of each craft are built by Scaled Composites . During 2012–2014, Virgin Galactic was also considering use of the WhiteKnightTwo as the air-launch platform for a new two-stage liquid-fueled rocket small satellite launcher called LauncherOne . In the event—by late 2015—they decided to use a larger carrier aircraft for the job. White Knight Two
465-479: The copilot, Michael Alsbury , was killed in the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board conducted an independent investigation into the accident. In July 2015, the NTSB released a report that cited inadequate design safeguards, poor pilot training, lack of rigorous federal oversight and a potentially anxious co-pilot without recent flight experience as important factors in the crash. The NTSB determined that
496-538: The crash resulted from the co-pilot's premature deployment of the feathering mechanism , which is normally used to aid a safe descent. The NTSB also faulted the ship's designers for failing to protect against human error, noting that the spacecraft lacked fail-safe systems that would have prevented or deterred a premature deployment of the feathering mechanism. The NTSB recommended that the FAA establish human factors guidance specific to commercial spaceflight operators and create
527-438: The crew survived. An investigation revealed the accident was caused by premature deployment of the "feathering" system, the ship's descent device; the NTSB also faulted the spacecraft's design for lacking fail-safe mechanisms that could have deterred or prevented early deployment. Initial projections by Virgin Galactic in 2008 called for test flights to begin in late 2009 and commercial service to start in 2011. This schedule
558-497: The developer or integrator wants to share. The open business processes involved with an open architecture may require some license agreements between entities sharing the architecture information. Open architectures have been successfully implemented in many diverse fields, including the U.S. Navy . VSS Enterprise VSS Enterprise ( tail number : N339SS ) was the first SpaceShipTwo (SS2) spaceplane , built by Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic . As of 2004, it
589-450: The feathered reentry configuration was tested in flight on 4 May 2011, with weekly test flights continuing through the end of May. On 9 June 2011, SS2 failed to separate from White Knight Two during its 11th planned glide flight due to a technical problem. Testing resumed with five successful glide flights in June 2011. In July 2011, after 15 successful glide flights, flight testing of SS2
620-552: The first few years. An extensive flight test program of VMS Eve , with nearly twenty flights between December 2008 and August 2009, was undertaken to validate the design and gradually expand the aircraft operating envelope . The flight tests were complete by September 2009, and testing with SpaceShipTwo began in early 2010. Data from Virgin Galactic Presentation 2007 General characteristics Performance Open architecture Open architecture
651-443: The messages that can flow between computer systems. These messages have a standard structure that can be modified or extended per agreements between the computer systems. An example is IBM's Distributed Data Management Architecture . Open architecture allows potential users to see inside all or parts of the architecture without any proprietary constraints. Typically, an open architecture publishes all or parts of its architecture that
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#1732772991282682-499: The mothership and spacecraft. On January 23, 2008 the White Knight Two design was revealed. On July 28, 2008 the completion and rollout of the first aircraft, Eve , ( Tail Number : N348MS) occurred at Scaled's Mojave headquarters. Branson predicted that the maiden space voyage would take place in 18 months: "It represents... the chance for our ever-growing group of future astronauts and other scientists to see our world in
713-617: The other was planned to offer 'cut-rate' trips to the stratosphere. The design is quite different from the White Knight, both in size, use of tail, engine configuration and placement of cockpit(s). The White Knight used two T-tails , but the White Knight Two uses two cruciform tails . Engine configuration is also very different. White Knight Two has four engines hung underneath the wings on pylons while White Knight's pair of engines were on either side of its single fuselage. Virgin Galactic contracted aerospace designer Burt Rutan to build
744-537: The rocket motor, and SpaceShipTwo performed its first glide flight with the engine installed in December 2012. The spacecraft's first powered test flight took place on 29 April 2013, briefly driving SpaceShipTwo to a supersonic velocity. Richard Branson said it "couldn't have gone more smoothly". On 5 September 2013, the second powered flight was made by the SpaceShipTwo. It broke the sound barrier, reached Mach 1.43, and climbed to 69,000 feet (21 km) over
775-415: The suborbital event. It was intended to have a service ceiling of about 60,000 ft (18 km), offering a dark blue sky to passengers. This would have allowed tourists to practice before the real flight. White Knight Two is of twin fuselage design with four jet engines mounted two on each wing. One fuselage was planned to be an exact replica of that of SpaceShipTwo (to allow tourist training), and
806-453: The unpowered subsonic glide flight test program was essentially complete. The company thereafter stated its intention to fit the hybrid rocket motor and control system to the vehicle, before resuming the glide flight test program with the rocket motor installed, in order to recharacterize the spacecraft's glide performance with slightly different weight distribution and aerodynamics. In October 2012, Scaled Composites installed key components of
837-428: Was carried out on 30 September 2010, lasting approximately 5 hours. Among the objectives of these flights was the improvement of pilot proficiency, and the results of the flights were deemed to show that the systems were capable of supporting future glide missions. On 10 October 2010, VSS Enterprise made its first crewed gliding test flight. It was released from VMS Eve at 45,000 ft (13,700 metres) and glided to
868-638: Was halted for two months while planned revisions to the spaceplane were made. Flight tests resumed in late September 2011, although the 16th glide flight – on 29 September – was marred by a brief loss of control aboard SS2, forcing the crew to utilise the feathered wing configuration to land safely. This test was followed by another hiatus, during which some of the spacecraft's engine components were installed. In June 2012, Scaled Composites received an FAA permit to conduct rocket-powered supersonic test flights. SpaceShipTwo flight tests resumed in June 2012. In September 2012, Virgin Galactic announced that
899-451: Was modified by the addition of two interior fins, with one fin being added to the inside (rocket-side) of each of the craft's twin vertical stabilizers . On 15 July 2010, VSS Enterprise made its first crewed flight. The craft remained attached to VMS Eve as planned, and underwent a series of combined vehicle systems tests. The flight lasted a total of 6 hours and 21 minutes. A second, similar crewed flight of VSS Enterprise and VMS Eve
930-528: Was not achieved, with captive carry and glide flight tests beginning in 2010, and the first test flight under rocket power in 2013. In October 2009, Virgin Galactic CEO Will Whitehorn outlined the flight test program for SpaceShipTwo. The test program includes seven phases: On 22 March 2010, the SpaceShipTwo vehicle VSS Enterprise underwent a captive carry test flight, with the parent White Knight Two aircraft, VMS Eve , performing
961-669: Was planned to be the first of five commercial suborbital SS2 spacecraft planned by Virgin Galactic. It was also the first ship of the Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo class, based on upscaling the design of record-breaking SpaceShipOne . The VSS Enterprise ' s name was an acknowledgement of the USS Enterprise from the Star Trek television series. The spaceplane also shared its name with NASA's prototype Space Shuttle orbiter , as well as