VMS ''Eve'' ( Tail number: N348MS) is a carrier mothership for

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The company ...

and launch platform for

SpaceShipTwo The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic. SpaceShipTwo is c ...

-based

Virgin SpaceShip Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The company i ...

s. VMS ''Eve'' was built by

Scaled Composites Scaled Composites (often called simply Scaled) is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman. It is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, United States. Founded to develo ...

for

. The "VMS" prefix stands for "Virgin MotherShip".CNet News
Virgin Galactic's faces of Eve
July 28, 2008 1:08 PM PDT, Candace Lombardi

Public launch

The aircraft was named after Evette Branson, the mother of

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expresse ...

, Chairman of the

Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the Companies House, who class it as a holding ...

. The jet plane has

nose art Nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of an aircraft, usually on the front fuselage. While begun for practical reasons of identifying friendly units, the practice evolved to express the individuality often constrained by ...

of a blonde woman holding a banner with the Virgin Galactic logo. The image is based on how Evette Branson looked when she was younger and is called ''Galactic Girl''.''Chicago Tribune''
Branson reveals mother ship
July 29, 2008 The aircraft was officially launched on July 28, 2008, in Mojave,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, at the

Mojave Spaceport The Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field is in Mojave, California, United States, at an elevation of . It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a sp ...

, home of Scaled Composites. On December 12, 2008, the aircraft performed first taxi tests,AVweb
WhiteKnight2 Completes Taxi Test
December 16, 2008 and a week later the maiden flight.The Space Fellowship
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Mothership Makes Maiden Flight
December 21, 2008 ''Eve'' is being used in the Virgin Galactic testflight program, preceding entry into commercial usage.''The Register''
Branson unveils Virgin Galactic mothership
Tuesday 29th July 2008 10:32 UTC, Scott Snowden

Burt Rutan Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (; born June 17, 1943) is a retired American aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft. He designed the rec ...

has dismissed fears that pressurization cycles might induce

fatigue failure In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striation (fatigue), striati ...

in the composite structure. Richard Branson has also announced that it will be highly fuel efficient.''National Geographic''
Virgin Galactic Unveils WhiteKnightTwo Space Plane
July 28, 2008, Ker Than

Flight test program

The initial flight occurred on 21 December 2008, after an initial low speed taxi test was carried out at Mojave followed by a high speed taxi on 16 December. By September 2009 the flight envelope was extended to 50000 feet. the total flight time for WhiteKnightTwo is 333.96 hours.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * BBC News
Branson unveils space tourism jet
20:42 UTC, Monday, 28 July 2008 UK * ''Los Angeles Times''
Richard Branson unveils his space plane
July 29, 2008, Peter Pae * ''Wired''
Virgin Galactic Unveils White Knight Two Launch Vehicle
07.29.08,Dave Bullock * ''New York Times''

July 29, 2008, John Schwartz * Reuters
Branson unveils plane to launch spaceship
Mon Jul 28, 2008 Fred Prouser * Associated Press
New space race heats up with unveiling of aircraft
Alicia Chang * ''Scientific American''
Forget the Dark Knight--the White Knight Two mothership has arrived
Jul 28, 2008 Adam Hadhazy * ''New Scientist''

28 July 2008, Rachel Courtland * ''Telegraph''

29 Jul 2008, James Quinn

External links

Virgin Galactic - ''news''
* Scaled Composites
Virgin Galactic Rolls Out Mothership ''Eve''
- Jul 28, 2008 Press Release * Scaled Composites
WHITEKNIGHTTWO FLIGHT TEST SUMMARIES

Public launch

Flight test program

References

External links

See also