Czy zgadujemy ile jeszcze potrzeba do pierwszego testu z napędem rakietowym?
Nie zgaduję, ale zacytuję dzisiejsze, dość ogólnikowe wprawdzie, wypowiedzi Willa Whitehorna, prezydenta Virgin Galactic:
"more SpaceShipTwo glide tests are in the offing. Those tests will include a high-altitude drop of the craft that will allow the pilots to feather and unfeather the SpaceShipTwo's novel, care-free tail section used during the fall back into Earth's atmosphere".
"These tests will be followed by attachment of the spaceplane's hybrid rocket motor. There will be very short firings of the motor, and then we'll extend those burns and we'll start climbing into space".
"I think we can pretty safely say now that we'll be in space in 2011. It's taken a little bit longer. But the point is that it has been done safely.".
Natomiast George Whitesides - dyrektor naczelny firmy, powiedział:
"We'll go commercial once we have confidence in the vehicle and how it performs. Clearly, we want to do more than one flight to space before we start flying people."
Źródło:
Space.com.