Virgin+Galactic

Richard Scott, a BBC reporter got a look behind the scenes of the development of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo as well as Spaceport America in New Mexico.

A two minute video helps to capture the insight. The video makes it clear that SS2 is still very much a work in progress: the interior is bare, lacking even seats. The video also helps show the size of the cabin. While Scott is able to stand up normally in the cabin, it seems likely it will look a bit more cramped when fully featired and containing six passengers; he notes that the cabin’s size “will probably mean them bumping into each other” during the weightless portion of the flight. The date of the video isn’t specified, but it shows SpaceShipTwo undergoing a fair amount of interior and exterior work at the time: the vehicle’s nose, for example, was removed.

One interesting note is something made in passing by Scott about SpaceShipTwo: “It’s going to be taking paying passengers into space from hopefully 2013.” That’s later than previous reports, which have suggested that Virgin would put SpaceShipTwo into commercial service next year. SpaceShipTwo, meanwhile, hasn’t made a glide flight since mid-January, according to Scaled Composites’ flight logs, although two attempts for glide flights in mid-February was aborted because of weather conditions.