Astronomy:VMS Eve

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Short description: Virgin Galactic mother ship
VMS Eve
VMS Eve Maiden Flight.jpg
VMS Eve's maiden flight
Role Spaceship carrier / launcher
National origin United States
Manufacturer Scaled Composites
Designer Robert Morgan, James Tighe[1][2]
First flight 21 December 2008
Primary user Virgin Galactic
Number built 1
Developed from White Knight One
Type WhiteKnightTwo
Construction number 001
Registration N348MS

VMS Eve (Tail number: N348MS[3]) is a carrier mothership for Virgin Galactic and launch platform for SpaceShipTwo-based Virgin SpaceShips.

WhiteKnightTwo at its rollout and christening ceremony, July 28, 2008

VMS Eve was built by Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic. The "VMS" prefix stands for "Virgin MotherShip".[4]

Public launch

VMS Eve's nose art

The aircraft was named after Evette Branson, the mother of Richard Branson, Chairman of the Virgin Group. The jet plane has nose art of a blonde woman holding a banner with the Virgin Galactic logo.[5] The image is based on how Evette Branson looked when she was younger and is called Galactic Girl.[6] The aircraft was officially launched on July 28, 2008, in Mojave, California , the United States , at the Mojave Spaceport, home of Scaled Composites. On December 12, 2008, the aircraft performed first taxi tests,[7] and a week later the maiden flight.[8] Eve is being used in the Virgin Galactic testflight program, preceding entry into commercial usage.[9]

Burt Rutan has dismissed fears that pressurization cycles might induce fatigue failure in the composite structure.[10] Richard Branson has also announced that it will be highly fuel efficient.[11]

Flight test program

The initial flight occurred on 21 December 2008, after an initial low speed taxi test was carried out at Mojave[12] followed by a high speed taxi on 16 December.[13] By September 2009 the flight envelope was extended to 50000 feet.[14] (As of September 2014) the total flight time for WhiteKnightTwo is 333.96 hours.

References

Citations
  1. Morgan, Robert & James Tighe, "U.S. Design Patent 612,719 for the ornamental design for an aircraft", US patent D612791, issued 2010-03-30
  2. "WK2 Rollout Audio Clips (parts 4 & 6)". Movaje Skies. 2008-07-30. http://mojaveskies.blogspot.com/2008/07/wk2-rollout-audio-clips.html. 
  3. "FAA N Number Registration for "Eve"". http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=348MS. 
  4. CNet News, Virgin Galactic's faces of Eve, July 28, 2008 1:08 PM PDT, Candace Lombardi
  5. Sher, Lauren (July 28, 2008). "Virgin Galactic Announces New Space Aircraft". http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=5467790&page=1. 
  6. Chicago Tribune, Branson reveals mother ship, July 29, 2008
  7. AVweb, WhiteKnight2 Completes Taxi Test, December 16, 2008
  8. The Space Fellowship, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Mothership Makes Maiden Flight, December 21, 2008
  9. The Register, Branson unveils Virgin Galactic mothership, Tuesday 29th July 2008 10:32 UTC, Scott Snowden
  10. Rob Coppinger (29 July 2008)"Rutan: Fatigue 'is not an issue' for WhiteKnightTwo", Flightglobal
  11. National Geographic, Virgin Galactic Unveils WhiteKnightTwo Space Plane, July 28, 2008, Ker Than
  12. Coppinger, Rob (13 Dec 2008). "World Exclusive Video: SpaceShipTwo mothership runway trial". London. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/12/13/320125/world-exclusive-video-spaceshiptwo-mothership-runway.html. "Source: Flight International" 
  13. Coppinger, Rob (17 Dec 2008). "Exclusive Video: WhiteKnightTwo makes high speed taxi, deploys spoilers". London. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/12/17/320251/exclusive-video-whiteknighttwo-makes-high-speed-taxi-deploys.html. "Source: Flight International" 
  14. Coppinger, Rob (30 April 2009), Scaled plans 50,000ft WhiteKnight Two flight by September, London, http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/04/30/325832/scaled-plans-50000ft-whiteknight-two-flight-by-september.html, "Source: Flight International" 
Bibliography

External links

See also

  • Blue Origin LPV Jacklyn, Blue Origin vehicle named after the founder's mother