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Designed by ‘Scaled Composites’, the huge and unique ‘WhiteKnightTwo’ mothership rolled down the runway and muscled itself into the air using four Pratt and Whitney PW308A turbofan engines. The ‘WhiteKnightTwo’ flew for about an hour, departing the runway at roughly 8:17 a.m. Pacific Standard Time and safely touching down at the Mojave Air and Space Port at approximately 9:17 a.m. PST, today (22nd December)
After a number of shakeout flights, the ‘WhiteKnightTwo’ is to be outfitted with the now-under-construction ‘SpaceShipTwo’. That rocket plane is also being built by Scaled Composites of Mojave, California. Ultimately WhiteKnightTwo is to carry the space plane to altitude, where it will then detach and head for suborbital space flights.
The WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo combo is to serve as the backbone of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceline operations. Virgin Galactic has on order five SpaceShipTwo rocket planes and two of the carrier craft, with options on more.
Given a progressive roster of test evaluations at the Mojave Air and Space Port, the spaceline system is to be commercially operated at the now-under-construction Spaceport America in New Mexico. The price tag per seat on the two pilot/six passenger suborbital SpaceShipTwo is $200,000.
