Photo: Virgin Galactic
When it comes to space exploration, you should take any kind of statement made by an entity working in this field with a grain of salt. It's not that the companies and organizations are lying, but this field of human activity is so complicated that deadlines are almost never met.
Take Virgin Galactic, for instance. As one of the companies that tries to make a living off space tourism, it plans on greatly expanding its operations - there have been only seven commercial flights (12th in total) over the past few years with the current spaceship design, of which Virgin operated only one, the VSS Unity.
I use the past tense here because the 12th flight, which took place this June, was also Unity's last. The spacecraft is now officially retired, and Virgin won't be making any more flights to space until the new one gets here.
The design is collectively called Delta class, and its production was initially scheduled to begin in 2023. That didn't happen, naturally, so the new deadline for when the assembly lines start to roll is now the first quarter of next year.
The Delta spacecraft family is largely based on the design of the Unity, only better suited to be mass-produced. Virgin will assemble these things with help from Bell Textron, which will supply the feathering system that makes Virgin's spaceships so special, and Qarbon Aerospace, which will be tasked with making the fuselage and wing.
The new ships will also be larger than the Unity, thus capable of accommodating six passengers instead of four.
To support prodution of the new line of ships Virgin has been working on a production facility in the state of Arizona, in the city of Mesa. And it was this week when we learned that the place is almost ready to get going.
The build process ended on the facility, and work on preparing it "to receive and install tooling" has begun. All the required hardware should be in position by the end of this year, and from there it's only a small step to Virgin starting to deliver the ship's major subassemblies: the wing, the fuselage, and the feathering system.
The Virgin factory also comprises two hangars, each with multiple bays, where the actual production and testing of the Delta ships will take place.
The Deltas will be put together in Mesa and then transported to Spaceport America in New Mexico. It is there where test flights will begin in preparation for the start of commercial operations, which should come in 2026.
Separately, Virgin announced back in May of a new system integration facility in Southern California. It is here where Virgin will test the main components (avionics, feather actuation, pneumatics, and hydraulics) of the ships before clearing them for flight.
I use the past tense here because the 12th flight, which took place this June, was also Unity's last. The spacecraft is now officially retired, and Virgin won't be making any more flights to space until the new one gets here.
The design is collectively called Delta class, and its production was initially scheduled to begin in 2023. That didn't happen, naturally, so the new deadline for when the assembly lines start to roll is now the first quarter of next year.
The Delta spacecraft family is largely based on the design of the Unity, only better suited to be mass-produced. Virgin will assemble these things with help from Bell Textron, which will supply the feathering system that makes Virgin's spaceships so special, and Qarbon Aerospace, which will be tasked with making the fuselage and wing.
The new ships will also be larger than the Unity, thus capable of accommodating six passengers instead of four.
To support prodution of the new line of ships Virgin has been working on a production facility in the state of Arizona, in the city of Mesa. And it was this week when we learned that the place is almost ready to get going.
The build process ended on the facility, and work on preparing it "to receive and install tooling" has begun. All the required hardware should be in position by the end of this year, and from there it's only a small step to Virgin starting to deliver the ship's major subassemblies: the wing, the fuselage, and the feathering system.
The Virgin factory also comprises two hangars, each with multiple bays, where the actual production and testing of the Delta ships will take place.
The Deltas will be put together in Mesa and then transported to Spaceport America in New Mexico. It is there where test flights will begin in preparation for the start of commercial operations, which should come in 2026.
Separately, Virgin announced back in May of a new system integration facility in Southern California. It is here where Virgin will test the main components (avionics, feather actuation, pneumatics, and hydraulics) of the ships before clearing them for flight.
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