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SpaceshipTwo unveiled in Mojave

New part keeps wings from feathering early.
Posted at 8:42 AM, Feb 19, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-19 16:38:27-05

Virgin Galactic officials will rolled out a new version of its ?‎SpaceShipTwo? space tourism rocket in Mojave Friday afternoon.

This is the company's return to flight testing for the first time since a 2014 accident destroyed the original, killing one of the pilots and setting back the Nascent industry.

Sir Richard Branson says he briefly wondered if it was worth continuing his space tourism program following the 2014 accident that destroyed a rocket and killed a pilot.
 
   The Virgin Galactic founder tells The Associated Press that engineers, astronauts and members of the public helped convince him that space travel is too important to give up on.
 
   Branson is at California's Mojave Air & Space Port for Friday's unveiling of SpaceShipTwo, the newest version of his company's tourism rocket.
 
   The 65-year-old says he's hopeful that during his lifetime paying customers will be taking Virgin Galactic ships on high-speed suborbital flights to the fringes of space.
 

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The space line founded by Sir Richard Branson will unveil the craft at California's Mojave Air & Space Port, where it was assembled.
SpaceShipTwo is designed to be flown by a crew of two and carry up to six passengers on a high-speed suborbital flight to the fringes of space. 

At an altitude above 62 miles, passengers will experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the Earth below.

After years of development, Virgin Galactic appeared to be nearing the goal of turning ordinary civilians into astronauts when the first SpaceShipTwo broke apart on Oct. 31, 2014, during its fourth rocket-powered flight. Wreckage fell to the Mojave Desert floor.

The investigation found that co-pilot Michael Alsbury prematurely unlocked the so-called feathering system that is intended to slow and stabilize the craft as it re-enters the atmosphere.

Alsbury was killed, but pilot Peter Siebold, although seriously injured, parachuted to safety.

The "feathers" — a term derived from the design of a badminton shuttlecock — are tail structures that extend rearward from each wingtip. They are designed to swivel upward at an angle to create drag, preventing a buildup of speed and heat, and then rotate back down to normal flying position as the craft descends into the thickening atmosphere.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigation found that Scaled Composites, a company that was developing SpaceShipTwo with Virgin Galactic and was responsible for its test program, should have had systems to compensate for human error.

The NTSB chairman, Christopher Hart, said it wasn't a matter of shortcuts but of not considering a crew member would make the mistake that occurred. Virgin Galactic subsequently assumed full responsibility to complete the test program.

The company stressed in a statement Thursday its commitment to testing from the level of individual parts on up to the complete craft. "Our team's job is to plan out not just the obvious tests but also the strange and inventive ones, to conduct those tests, and to use the data from those tests to re-examine everything about our vehicle to ensure we can take the next step forward," it said.

AP Modified 2016
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