Virgin Galactic Rolls Out Mother Ship

Virgin Group head Sir Richard Branson unveiled the latest addition to his air- and spaceline fleet at the Mojave Airport in California today, accompanied by the craft's chief designer, Burt Rutan.

The White Knight 2 is a four-engine jet that will carry an 8-seat spaceship called SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of 48,000 feet so that the spaceship can drop off and fire its rocket engine for a brief run to suborbital space. Branson's Virgin Galactic hopes to begin regularly scheduled passenger service to space in 2010.

Rutan's company Scaled Composites made history in 2004 with the world's first privately funded manned spaceflights by its three-seat SpaceShipOne, which was carried aloft by the original White Knight. The White Knight 2 features two fuselages, each with its own cabin, connected by a single continuous wing arching between them, where the spaceship will ride. With the wing span of a B-29 bomber, it is the largest all-carbon-fiber aircraft yet built.

On hand to christen the White Knight Two outside a Scaled hangar was Branson's mother, Eve. Not coincidentally, Eve is also the name of the mother ship. "If you're going to name a mother ship," Branson quipped to a gathering of perhaps two hundred reporters and dignitaries, including Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, "you might as well name it after your own mother."

Eve Branson stood with her son beside the White Knight 2 as Sir Richard shook a bottle of Champagne and then hosed down a gaggle of reporters photographing the event as he opened it. When asked how she felt having an exotic new aircraft named after her, Eve replied, "I don't know what to say. But am I allowed to drink this?"

Kidding aside, Branson has serious aspirations for the White Knight 2. Besides carrying paying passengers to space, 270 of whom have ponied up $200,000 each for tickets or put down substantial deposits, Branson envisions White Knight 2 ferrying government, industrial, and academic researchers and their experiments into the realm of weightless flight on a regular basis. Future craft using the White Knight 2/SpaceShipTwo technology could also enable superfast travel from one point on the Earth to another.

The White Knight 2 will begin ground testing tomorrow, with flight testing expected to begin in the fall. SpaceShipTwo is still under construction, with flight testing pending the conclusion of an investigation into the causes of a test stand explosion that claimed the lives of three Scaled employees last summer.

Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn said today that the spaceship would not fly passengers until it was absolutely safe to do so. "Safety is our north star," he said. "Safety is crucial to us because Virgin is invested in four airlines, including Virgin America, in four continents.... Our name has become a byword for safety and innovative and efficient transportation solutions."

That's a hard-won reputation the hugely profitable group of companies won't willingly squander.

Senate votes to stop production of F-22 jet

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to stop production of the F-22 fighter plane, handing President Barack Obama a victory as he tries to rein in defense spending.
The Senate voted 58 to 40 to strip $1.75 billion for the Lockheed Martin Corp-built planes from a $680 billion defense bill, overriding the objections of lawmakers seeking to protect manufacturing jobs in the midst of a deep recession.

The Senate's vote does not necessarily kill the program, as the House of Representatives included funding for the state-of-the-art fighter in its bill, which sets military spending priorities.
The two chambers must resolve their differences before sending a final bill to the president to sign into law.

Obama has threatened a veto if Congress continues to fund the F-22 beyond the 187 planes already built or in the production pipeline.

"At a time when we're fighting two wars and facing a serious deficit, this would have been an inexcusable waste of money," Obama said after the vote.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has proposed capping production as part of an overhaul of the Pentagon's weapons programs as it tries to provide resources to fight insurgencies like those in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon applauded the vote.

Later on Tuesday the Senate voted 93-1 to extend the authorized end strength of the U.S. Army by 30,000 troops over the next three years starting October 1.

The amendment, by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, does not mandate the increase, but provides the authority for Defense Secretary Robert Gates to carry out his plan for a temporary increase of 22,000 in the Army's size and go further if he needs to, a Senate staffer said. The House has passed similar language.

In a separate voice vote, the Senate also adopted a measure that urges Obama to impose sanctions on Iran's central bank if that country continues to pursue its nuclear program and rejects an offer for diplomatic talks.

The radar-evading F-22 is designed for combat against other fighter jets but has not seen action in the Iraq or Afghanistan conflicts, where U.S. foes have not fielded an air force. Critics point out that each hour of flight time requires 30 hours of maintenance and say the plane is a relic of Cold War military strategy.

The Pentagon wants instead to ramp up production of the cheaper, more versatile F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and Gates said last week that funding for that program could be jeopardized if Congress continues to fund the F-22.

Lockheed Martin is the primary contractor for both planes. The company's stock closed at $75.13, down 8.5 percent, on a day when it posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings but failed to raise its full-year forecast.

F-22 backers in the Senate said national security could be compromised if the plane was canceled. Up to 95,000 jobs across the country also could be at risk, said Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a hub of defense manufacturing.

"To give up an aircraft of this sophistication and this capability, and simultaneously in an economic situation such as we're in .... I think is terribly shortsighted," Dodd said.

Republican Senator John McCain said it was more important to rein in unnecessary spending at a time when the country is amassing a record $1.8 trillion budget deficit.

McCain, Obama's rival in the 2008 presidential contest, said the president deserved credit for "being very firm on this issue" and described the vote as a "big victory for the American taxpayer."

The overall defense authorization bill includes $550.4 billion for military operations and $130 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for the fiscal year starting October 1.
The bill has become a vehicle for several provisions unrelated to military spending, such as the Iran amendment.

Last week, the Senate approved a measure that would expand hate-crime protection to gays and lesbians, and on Monday also extended that protection to military members.
On Wednesday, the Senate is scheduled to consider a provision that would make it easier for gun owners to carry concealed weapons across state lines.

The House version includes $369 million in advanced procurement funds as a down payment on 12 more F-22 jets in fiscal 2011.

A final vote on the Senate bill could come later this week, but the two chambers might not begin to hammer out their differences until September.

What Supersonic Looks Like

A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor executes a supersonic flyby over the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) in the Gulf of Alaska, in this handout photo taken on June 22, 2009. The John C. Stennis is participating in Northern Edge 2009, a joint exercise focusing on detecting and tracking units at sea, in the air and on land. Picture taken on June 22, 2009.