Disturbing news out of Mojave, Calif., this morning: The carrier aircraft for Virgin Galactic’s suborbital passenger spaceship was damaged yesterday when its left main landing gear collapsed on the runway.
The aircraft, known as WhiteKnightTwo, fortunately wasn’t carrying SpaceShipTwo, which has been undergoing test flights in Mojave for several months. WhiteKnightTwo was making its 37th flight when the gear collapsed.
In a brief statement, Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., which designed and manufactured SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo, said on its website:
"A minor incident occurred on the runway at Mojave airport this morning, which involved a mechanical problem with the left hand-side landing gear of WhiteKnightTwo. No injuries were sustained and the incident did not involve the Spaceship, which was not attached to WhiteKnightTwo. WhiteKnightTwo was on its 37th test flight and has been flying since December 2008. Further information will be posted in due course."
WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo are based on predecessor craft designed for a commercial spaceflight competition known as the Ansari X Prize. Scaled Composites, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, won the $10 million prize in 2004 for a pair of suborbital spaceflights by a privately developed, reusable piloted craft.
Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson hired Scaled Composites, now a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, to build a fleet of spaceships for tourism and scientific research. Virgin, which is selling tickets to ride the spaceship for $200,000 a seat, has signed up about 350 people so far.
It is not yet known how the damage to WhiteKnightTwo will impact SpaceShipTwo's test program and pilot training.
(SpaceShipTwo, flying with a crew for the first time, is carried beneath WhiteKnightTwo during a July 15 test run. Credit: Virgin Galactic)
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