Photos: A tour of SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic's passenger craft
Summary: The world's first civilian passenger spacecraft is on show at Farnborough International Airshow this week. ZDNet went down to check out the full-size replica of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, which could be taking its first passengers to the edge of space as early as next year
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From as early as the end of 2013, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo could be taking civilians into space.
The two-hour trip will cost a cool $200,000 (£129,000), but it will buy passengers a few minutes of weightlessness as the ship travels to the edge of space, 60 miles above the earth.
This full-scale replica of SpaceShipTwo is on show at the Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire, England all this week.
Photo: Nick Heath
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Talkback
Nice pictures
"The combination of high drag and low weight, due to the very light materials used to construct the vehicle, means that the skin temperature during re-entry stays very low compared to previous manned spacecraft. Thermal protection systems such as heat shields or tiles are not needed."
The lack of need for heat shields has a lot to do with the much lower speeds it is descending at relative to braking from orbit. Geosync orbital velocity is something like 6800 mph. Peak re-entry speed for SS1 was about one-third of that.
If it were coming in from orbit like the shuttle, soyuz, or dragon, it would likely need heat shielding.
I think the statement still stands.
The design of SS 2 might be ably to use the very thin upper atmosphere to actually slow its decent earlier in the flight profile.
Certainly part of the equation
The only craft that I know of that is really a valid comparison is the X-15 which did not receive any heat coating until its second generation, well after it had achieved sub orbital space flight.
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Having worked on these things 20 years ago, the slowing down early would really help.
so yes, lighter and greater brag helps negate the need of tiles/heat shields.
Learn something new every day.
Think something similar would work for orbital speeds like the shuttles 16k mph?
I think the statement still stands.
The design of SS 2 might be ably to use the very thin upper atmosphere to actually slow its decent earlier in the flight profile.
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