Bit of fantasy while it's quiet12 Jul 2021 21:04
Anyone follow Virgin Galactic over the weekend? Did you notice the name of the mothership? 'Eve' after Sir Richard's mum.
During the preamble commentary they said the 'ship' would slowly climb to 45,000 ft and then the 'feather thingy' (my name for the passenger plane!) would release, and then even fall a tad, before firing rockets and then climbing near vertically at Mach 2.5 or whatever, out of the atmosphere.
Wouldn't it be fab if our Eve is just at the point of release, after a gentle climb from 1p to 4.5p (forget that we were once £1 for a minute!) before heading in a steep climb to the edge of space! I'll hope to sell at the apogee; I'll recognise it as I'll be weightless and smiling! I'll be pressing 'Sell' but the internet connection will have failed due to the sheer altitude of the sp :)
Eve: VMS Eve is a carrier mothership for Virgin Galactic and launch platform for SpaceShipTwo-based Virgin SpaceShips. VMS Eve was built by Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic. The "VMS" prefix stands for "Virgin MotherShip".
The aircraft was named after Evette Branson, the mother of Richard Branson, Chairman of the Virgin Group. The jet plane has nose art of a blonde woman holding a banner with the Virgin Galactic logo.[5] The image is based on how Evette Branson looked when she was younger and is called Galactic Girl.[6] The aircraft was officially launched on July 28, 2008, in Mojave, California, the United States, at the Mojave Spaceport, home of Scaled Composites. On December 12, 2008, the aircraft performed first taxi tests,[7] and a week later the maiden flight.[8] Eve is being used in the Virgin Galactic testflight program, preceding entry into commercial usage.[9]