2008 'Year of the Spaceship' at Mojave Spaceport

By Bill Deaver

MOJAVE - 2008 is expected to be the "Year of the Spaceship" at the Mojave Airport/Spaceport.

That's the prediction of Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, a partner with Mojave's Scaled Composites in The Spaceship Company, which is designing and building SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo.

Speaking at a space conference in England, Whitehorn said that the designs for the new spaceship and the aircraft that will carry it to launch altitude will be unveiled in January. Construction of the two craft are more than half complete, he told those attending the Third Rutherford Appleton Laboratory space conference in Oxfordshire.

The SpaceShipTwo simulator under construction at Scaled is expected to be ready for use in March. It is much more sophisticated than the simulator for SpaceShipOne.

WhiteKnightTwo is expected to make its first flight around the middle of the year. Whitethorn said that WhiteKnightTwo will look more like the Virgin Global Flyer than WhiteKnightOne, and will be much larger than its predecessor.

The new launch aircraft or a larger successor could be used through 2015, Whitehorn said.

Spaceport ready

Stu Witt, general manager of the East Kern Airport District, said the Mojave Airport/Spaceport is ready for SpaceShipTwo.

"The airport’s ready for the next wave of spacecraft." Witt said. "The runway projects are complete, and this year we’re going to finish upgrading our water system, we’re going to install the radar system in the tower, and the airport will be ready for the next wave of flight test and flight research activities relative to SpaceShipTwo."

Scaled is expected to add another 100 employees during 2008 to help with the space program and other projects.