What is the difference between a Virgin Galactic spaceship and a NASA shuttle?
A lot! To be fair, the Space Shuttle was designed to carry significant payloads and people into orbit rather than people only into sub-orbit. However there are some key design differences which represent important developments in the future of safe and commercially viable space travel. Firstly, SpaceShipTwo is being built from composite materials not metal, creating major benefits in weight, power output requirements and resilience. Secondly, the feathering mechanism (described above) means that these spacecraft do not require specially designed (and historically unreliable) thermal protection systems used by the Space Shuttle. Thirdly, SpaceShipTwo will be air launched not ground launched. This has important benefits for both safety and environmental impact. SpaceShipTwo is being built following a design brief that deliberately seeks to avoid unnecessary complexity and in particular, moving parts. This is a very different concept than that which applied to the Space Shuttle and one wh
