Information on SpaceShipTwo

Leonard David has an article on the progress of SpaceShipTwo. Here are some things to note:

Whitehorn said more than 100 test flights are scheduled to give spaceliner operations a good shakeout. He estimated the first commercial flights will occur by the end of 2009 and possibly sooner if the planned trial runs prove to be trouble-free.

Whitehorn said that flight tests of the SpaceShipTwo/White Knight 2 will take place out of the inland spaceport at Mojave, Calif. “I imagine even the early flying program of commercial flights in late 2009 will be from Mojave,” he said.

After those initial flights, he said the company also plans to use New Mexico’s Spaceport America, especially as more facilities are added there around 2010. At least “that’s the scenario we’re working on at the moment,” Whitehorn said.

It that comes to pass, the test flights are going to have to start soon, perhaps later this year. At 1 flight/week, it would take two years to make 100 test flights.