Virgin Switching Back to Rubber Fuel for SpaceShipTwo

摘要

Virgin Galactic is planning to return to a rubber-like fuel when it resumes powered test flights of its SpaceShipTwo sub-orbital vehicle based on the results of an ongoing series of tests of the spacecraft's hybrid rocket motor. Virgin Galactic Chief Executive George Whitesides, speaking at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight here Oct. 8, said the company had carried out a series of full-duration test firings of the motor recently, which used a rubber-like fuel formally known as hydroxyl-terminated polybu-tadiene (HTPB). "I'm pleased to say that we have had really terrific progress" on the vehicle's propulsion system, Whitesides said while showing videos of two recent engine tests, each running about 60 seconds. "We have good combustion quality on these firings."