Sucessful Test Flight for EVE

Posted by SpaceSightSeer on March 28, 2009 under Spacecraft |

Virgin Galactic EVE Test Flight

WhiteKnightTwo (also known as “EVE”) completed its third successful test flight yesterday - the longest and fastest to date with a duration of over two and half hours, maximum speed of 140 knots and an altitude of over 18,000 ft. EVE is a jet-powered aircraft designed as a launch platform for SpacShipTwo being built for Virgin Galactic by Scaled Composites. The company belives the craft has the potential to launch an unmanned rocket capable of putting a satellite into low Earth orbit.

Commenting on the flights, Burt Rutan, Founder of Scaled Composites said:

“WhiteKnightTwo really is an impressive vehicle and it represents the apogee of the application of carbon composites to aerospace, all of us at Scaled are tremendously excited by its capabilities. I believe the vehicle will be developed and sold for a variety of launch applications beyond the initial requirements of Virgin Galactic.”

The URL above leads to the company’s press kit for the sucessful flight. Towards the bottom of the page are a dozen photos from the flight along with a flight video.