VMS Eve - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Aircraft registration

An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...

: N348MS) is a carrier mothership for Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is a company within Richard Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public, along with suborbital space science missions and orbital launches of small satellites...

and launch platform for Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo

Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo

The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital, air-launched spaceplane, designed for space tourism. It is under development by The Spaceship Company, a California-based joint venture between Scaled Composites and the Virgin Group, as part of the Tier 1b program.SpaceShipTwo is...

-based Virgin SpaceShips.

VMS Eve is the first, and so far only, WhiteKnightTwo, built by Scaled Composites

Scaled Composites

Scaled Composites is an aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman that is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States...

for Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic

. The "VMS" prefix stands for "Virgin Mothership".

Public Launch

The aircraft was named after Evette Branson, the mother of Richard Branson

Richard Branson

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....

, Chairman of the Virgin Group

Virgin Group

Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...

. The jet plane has nose art

Nose art

Nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of a military aircraft, usually located near the nose, and is a form of aircraft graffiti....

of a blond woman holding the Virgin Galactic corporate flag. The image is based on how Evette Branson looked when she was younger and is called Galactic Girl. The aircraft was officially launched on Monday, July 28, 2008, in Mojave

Mojave

Mojave or Mohave most often refers to:*Mojave Desert*Mojave River*Mohave peopleIt can also refer to:-Population Centers:* Mojave, California* Fort Mojave Indian Reservation* Mohave County, Arizona...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, USA, at the Mojave Spaceport

Mojave Spaceport

thumb|right|235px|A retired [[Boeing 767-200]] that flew for [[Ansett Australia]] being cut open for scrap at Mojave AirportThe Mojave Air and Space Port , also known as the Civilian Aerospace Test Center, is located in Mojave, California, at an elevation of...

, home of Scaled Composites. On December 12, 2008, the aircraft performed first taxi tests, and a week later the maiden flight. Eve will be used in the Virgin Galactic testflight program, preceding entry into commercial usage.

It is the largest all composite aircraft ever constructed and has the longest single-piece composite aircraft part: a 140 ft (42.7 m) long wingspar. Burt Rutan has dismissed fears that pressurization cycles might induce fatigue failure

Fatigue (material)

'In materials science, fatigue is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading. The nominal maximum stress values are less than the ultimate tensile stress limit, and may be below the yield stress limit of the material.Fatigue occurs...

in the composite structure. Richard Branson has also announced that it will be highly fuel efficient.

Flight test program

The initial flight tests were planned to begin in early September 2008 but they were delayed. The flight tests were expected to be complete by September, 2009.

December 12, 2008 -- WhiteKnightTwo did a low speed taxi trial at Mojave
Mojave
Mojave or Mohave most often refers to:*Mojave Desert*Mojave River*Mohave peopleIt can also refer to:-Population Centers:* Mojave, California* Fort Mojave Indian Reservation* Mohave County, Arizona...

.
December 16, 2008 -- WhiteKnightTwo did a high speed taxi trial at Mojave
Mojave
Mojave or Mohave most often refers to:*Mojave Desert*Mojave River*Mohave peopleIt can also refer to:-Population Centers:* Mojave, California* Fort Mojave Indian Reservation* Mohave County, Arizona...

.

Designation codes

GFxx=Glided flight of the SpaceshipTwo after release from White Knight 2.
CCxx=Captive Carry of the SpaceshipTwo.
Pxx=Powered flight (SS2?)
GCxx=Aborted glided flight

Total flighttime

Total flight time for WK2 as of september 1st 2011=205,06 hours

Flights
#	Date	Designation	Notes	Length of flight (hours)
1	December 21, 2008	None	WhiteKnightTwo maiden testflight. The two pilots were Peter Siebold Peter Siebold Peter Siebold is a member of the Scaled Composites astronaut team and was one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites... and co-pilot Clint Nichols.	1
2	February 5, 2009	None	Testflight after some modifications to the airframe.	1,5
3	March 25, 2009	None	Testflight into the troposphere Troposphere The troposphere is the lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere. It contains approximately 80% of the atmosphere's mass and 99% of its water vapor and aerosols.... was the fastest and longest yet: >140 knots and >18,000 feet. Seven additional tests were "successfully completed including in flight engine restarts, engine thrust asymmetry assessment and continued expansion of WK2’s operating envelope and evaluation of WK2’s handling qualities."	2,33
4	April 20, 2009	None	Test flight lasted over 4 hours and ended with slight damage to the rudder, due to a tail-strike.	4
5	May 20, 2009	None	Test flight lasted about 3 hours and was the highest yet (20000 feet). An emergency response drill was conducted after landing.	approximately 3
6	June 2, 2009	None	Extending flight- and speed envelope.	3,1
7	June 8, 2009	None	Test flight lasted 6 hours and increased maximum altitude 14,716 meters (45,000 feet). Wind-up turns were performed to 2.5g. Engines were shut down and restarted per plan.	6,1
8	June 11, 2009	None	Test flight monitored by FAA resulted in issuance of pilot letter of authorization.	1
9	June 15, 2009	None	Test flight lasted 7.5 hours and increased maximum altitude to 15972 meters (52400 feet). Speed envelope increased to 370 KTAS. Engines were shut down and restarted per plan.	7,5Total flight time for WK2 as of June 21st 2011 was 192 hours
10	June 19, 2009	None	Test flight to Phoenix Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data... , including landing at Phoenix.	6?
11	June 20, 2009	None	Flyover of Las Cruces airport Las Cruces International Airport Las Cruces International Airport is an international airport located 8 miles west of the city center of Las Cruces, New Mexico, on a Mesa overlooking the Mesilla Valley. The airport was the major hub for Zia Airlines in the 1970s and early 1980s. There have been no scheduled passenger flights to... , New Mexico New Mexico New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S... , having taken off earlier that morning from Phoenix Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data... . Flyovers included a total of six passes over the airport, three of these were low-altitude runway passes on two different runways with one a near-touch-and-go.	3?
12	July 9, 2009	None	Testing cabin environmental control system (heating/cooling) and third-seat flight engineer capabilities. Flight maximum altitude 51000 feet.	4,5
13	July 14,2009	None		5
14	July 17, 2009	None		0,9
15	July 21, 2009	None		5,7
16	July 27, 2009	None		5,5
17	July 28, 2009	None	Demonstration for EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2009 at Wittman Regional Airport Wittman Regional Airport Wittman Regional Airport is a public airport located two miles south of the central business district of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States. The airport is owned and operated by Winnebago County. Wittman Field, as it sometimes called, is used almost exclusively for general aviation, but has... in Oshkosh, WI.	0,2
18	July 31, 2009	None		0,2
19	August 1, 2009	None		5,1
20	October 15, 2009	None		3,5
21	October 17, 2009	None		1,3
22	October 17, 2009	None		1,2
23	January 28, 2010	None		3,1
24	March 4, 2010	None		3,7
25	March 22, 2010	CC01	First test flight with SpaceShip2 attached, to 45,000 feet altitude, duration nearly three hours.	2,9
26	May 1, 2010	None		5,5
27	May 16, 2010	CC02	Test flight with the SS2 attached.	4,7
28	June 15, 2010	None		5,3
29	June 24, 2010	None		3,4
30	June 24, 2010	None		2
31	June 30, 2010	None		5,3
32	July 1, 2010	None		5,3
33	July 15, 2010	CC03	Test flight with the SS2 attached to the mothership.	6,2
34	August 3, 2010	None		6,2
35	August 11, 2010	None		3,7
36	August 18, 2010	None		3,9
37	August 19, 2010	None	The landing gear partly malfunctioned which lead to a minor accident, further test flights has taken place afterwards.	1,5
38	September 13, 2010	None		2,5
39	September 30, 2010	CC04	Test flight with the SS2 attached to the mothership.	5
40	October 5, 2010	None	Flight without the SS2.	2
41	October 10, 2010	GF01	First separation in the air with the Space Ship Two (SS2).	1,5
42	October 22, 2010	CC05		3,4
43	October 22, 2010	CC06	the WK2 and SS2 made a publicity flight at the future spaceport Spaceport A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories... in New Mexico.	3,4
44	October 28, 2010	GF02	2nd separation in the air with Space Ship Two .	1,1
45	November 17, 2010	GF03	another separation of the SS2 which glided to earth.	2
46	December 4, 2010	None	Flight testing with the SS2 attached	2,5
47	January 13, 2011	GF04	Fourth in-air separation with Space Ship Two.	1,4
48	February 14, 2011	05GC(CC07)	Test flight with the WK2 and SS2, partly failed due to poor weather.	1,35
49	February 15, 2011	05GC(CC08)	Test flight with the WK2 and SS2, partly failed due to poor weather.	1,83
50	March 30, 2011	None	First flight of two during the day, without the SS2.	3,25
51	March 30, 2011	None	Second flight during the day, without the SS2.	1,7
52	April 6, 2011	CC09	Visit to San Francisco airport with the SS2 attached.	2,83
53	April 7, 2011	CC10	Return from San Francisco airport with the SS2 attached.	1,35
54	April 11, 2011	None	Test flight	1,76
55	April 14, 2011	CC11	Another test flight	3,07
56	April 22, 2011	GF05	Another test flight	1,4
57	April 27, 2011	GF06	Release of SS2	1,26
58	May 4, 2011	GF07	Release of SS2, first test of featuring to reduce flightspeed of the SS2 while gliding back to earth.	2,03
59	May 10, 2011	GF08	Release of SS2	1,42
60	May 19, 2011	GF09	Release of SS2	1,38
61	May 25, 2011	GF10	Release of SS2, Second test of featuring device to reduce airspeed of the SS2 when it glideflight back to earth.	1,83
62	June 9, 2011	CC12	Aborted mission due to technical problems.	1,4
63	June 10, 2011	None	Maximum landing weight test.	0,2
64	June 14, 2011	GF11	Release of SS2, after failure to do so on flight #62.	1,2
65	June 15, 2011	GF12	Release of SS2	1,9
66	June 21, 2011	GF13	Release of SS2	1,5
67	June 23, 2011	GF14	Release of SS2	1,6
68	June 27, 2011	GF15	Release of SS2	1,9
69	August 11, 2011	None		2,1
70	August 17, 2011	None		1,1
71	August 18, 2011	None		3,2
72	August 31, 2011	None		3,1

Flight 9 longest flight as of august 14th 2011

External links

Virgin Galactic - news
Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic Rolls Out Mothership "Eve" - Jul 28, 2008 Press Release
Scaled Composites, WHITEKNIGHTTWO FLIGHT TEST SUMMARIES

Public Launch

Flight test program

Designation codes

Total flighttime

External links

See also