Business, Space

The Unveiling

9 Comments

White Knight Two will be rolled out for the general public today in Mojave. Scaled Employees had a private rollout yesterday.

[Late morning update]

Clark Lindsey has the Virgin press release.

I don’t understand why they say that this is environmentally friendly. Compared to what? If they’re still going with the hybrid, it presumably burns rubber, and has CO2 as a combustion by-product. What’s so friendly about that, compared to, say, LOX/kerosene? Just marketing hype, I guess.

[Update mid afternoon]

Clark Lindsey has a lot more links.

9 thoughts on “The Unveiling”

  3. Rand,

    My suspicion, given the comments from ISDC and the Personal Spaceflight Symposium, as well as some articles, is that WK2/Eve is more environmentally benign. From Whitehorns comments at ISDC, it is suppose to be incredibly fuel efficient. You note they say “space access system”, since WK2/Eve isn’t the ship itself, but is integral for SS2 to be a spaceship.

  5. Rand has developed the thesis that Clinton would never have been elected in the internet era due to the drive-by’s inability to control access to information.

    Absent Ross Perot, I think he is spot on right.

    I believe Obama will prove a surogate in supporting Rand’s hypothesis.

  7. “I don’t understand why they say that this is environmentally friendly.”

    LOX/Hydrogen possibly? One could house the storage tanks in one of the carrier craft’s fuselages then transfer to SS2 right before launch. I would think the carrier craft would have room to spare to handle the extra insulation and plumbing for the cryogenic storage during the long ride up to the launch deck. All of that stuff could be kept to a minimum on the SS2 itself.

    My gut tells me I am being silly again but is the only combo I can think of as being environmentally friendly. I could very easily believe this is was something dreamed up by Branson. The nutty Brit’ probably penciled it in when he was sullying with the press releases.

  8. LOX/Hydrogen is silly, it’s not going to happen with SS2. I think what they’re referencing is that they produce N2 + CO2 + H2O rather than just CO2 + H2O, which might appear to be more “environmentally friendly” under the theory that CO2 is the devil’s own gas.

  9. It is environmentally friendly compared with the Shuttle solid rocket boosters, which IIRC use Aluminum and Ammonium Perchlorate.

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