Virgin Galactic Rolls Out Mother Ship

I've just return from Mojave to Los Angeles via a specially chartered Virgin America flight for reporters to witness the rollout of Virgin Galactic's White Knight 2.

The ship isn't flying yet--it'll begin ground tests tomorrow and flight tests in the fall. Check out my full report on PopSci.com.

Rocketeers Paperback Shipping July 29

I have on my desk the paperback edition of my book Rocketeers, which goes on sale Tuesday, July 29.

This edition features a few corrections and updates, and also a bibliography, which the hardback version doesn't have.

Cover price is $14.95, and it'll be available in all the usual outlets, including Amazon, which I see has discounted it to $10.17.

I'll let you know when I have signed copies for sale on my website.

White Knight 2 in Mojave and Oshkosh

I'm packing up to head to California for the rollout of Virgin Galactic's White Knight 2, built by Scaled Composites.

White Knight 2 is a B-29-sized four-engine jet made of carbon fiber composites that was designed to carry an 8-seat spaceship called SpaceShipTwo to high altitude. Once there, the spaceship will drop from between White Knight 2's twin booms to fire its rocket engine for a Mach-3 run to space.

Virgin Galactic has already sold more than $20,000,000 worth of tickets to suborbital space at $200,000 each, and some of the future passengers will be on hand in Mojave for the unveiling, along with Virgin chief Richard Branson, White Knight and SpaceShip designer Burt Rutan, and a cadre of Virgin airline pilots training for the job of spaceline pilot.

The rollout is schedule for 7:30 a.m. Monday, July 28 in Mojave. Watch this space for my reporting on it.

Afterwards, Branson and Rutan are heading to the EAA AirVenture Convention at Oshkosh, where they'll give a couple of presentations on White Knight 2. Here's the schedule, as given to me by the Scaled media rep:

Presentation 1: Tuesday, July 29, Pavillion #7, 1:00 p.m.

Presentation 2: Tuesday, July 29 (same day), Theatre in the Woods, 9:00 p.m.

Unfortunately for Oshkosh attendees, the White Knight 2 will stay behind in Mojave.

XCOR and Rocket Racing League at Oshkosh

The media reps at XCOR Aerospace and the Rocket Racing League (RRL) have just filled me on on their plans for demo flights and presentations at the EAA AirVenture Convention at Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

XCOR's engineers have been hard at work perfecting the Rocket Racing League's first X-Racer, a rocket-powered racing airplane, and now they're ready for demonstration flights at Oshkosh. Here's the schedule:

Flight 1: Tuesday, July 29, 2:30 p.m., following a 2:10 p.m. press conference

Fight 2: Friday, August 1, 2:30 p.m.

Flight 3: Saturday, August 2, 2:30 p.m.

All flights will be flown by Rick Searfoss, a former Space Shuttle commander now serving as XCOR and the RRL's chief test pilot. "And in addition," the RRL rep tells me, "the Rocket Racing League exhibit/booth on Aero Shell Square will feature the RRL simulators, games, and other great stuff for all ages."

XCOR chief engineer Dan DeLong and company president Jeff Greason will also give three separate presentations on the company's future as a commercial spaceship developer. I'm sure their spaceship-in-development, the Lynx, will feature prominently. Here's the schedule for those events:

Presentation 1: Monday, July 28, 2:30 p.m.

Presentation 2: Saturday, August 2, 1:00 p.m.

Presentation 3: Sunday, August 3, 11:30 a.m.

On the Fox Business Network

Look for me on the Fox Business Network this Monday morning, July 21, at 7:30 a.m. on a breakfast show hosted by Charles Payne.

I'll be on in the studio for a few minutes to talk about the emerging commercial spaceflight industry, including news from Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace and a new edition of my book Rocketeers.

Watch this space for a link to the segment after it airs....



---Update on July 21---
Not quite as much time as I had hoped for for the segment--they seem to have been running late and had to truncate the time alloted to it.

Still, they brought in Diane Murphy, veteran space business communications executive and SpaceX's new communications director via satellite. She was in excellent form, in spite of having to appear in a Los Angeles studio at 4:00 a.m. Nice job, Diane!

Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to plug the new edition of my book Rocketeers. Watch for a post about that soon.