Comments on: Branson: SpaceShipTwo Test Program “Very Close to Being Finished”

By: Bob sees it through

Bob sees it through — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:16:36 +0000

That slight omission in the september flight with SpaceShipTwo scared the living daylights out of the Scaled Composites guys. Since then no drop tests. The design seems to be a total fail. White Knight on the other hand is all thumbs up (explainable, no groundbreaking technic here). So what do you do? You focus on White Knight and downplay any concern about airworthiness of SpaceShipTwo. It just takes more time. In plain English: we delay and delay still further as we already have done. 2010 became 2011 and 2011 became 2012 and 2012 becomes – lets be blunt- 2014 or 2015… maybe. Branson grins. Bad choise made.

By: ken

ken — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 03:04:18 +0000

Close to being finished????? With only drop tests with no engine for SS2? Doesn’t Branson mean: “close to being started?”

By: Doubting Tom

Doubting Tom — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:10:22 +0000

If “very close” means “sometime in the future” and “finished” means “Engine! We don’t need no stinking engine!” then this statement is accurate. Or as Obi-wan once said true from a certain point of view.

By: mr. mark

mr. mark — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:33:18 +0000

Time will tell. Engine test results have become very proprietary for Virgin Galactic. We’ll know if thing are on track with the first flight engine test. We already know things are delayed. Otherwise, It’s more hype from the hype master.