Virgin Galactic tests passenger rocket ship, 3 years after fatal accident
Pilots reach height of 25,000 metres before making smooth runway landing, company says
Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic conducted a supersonic test flight over the Sierra Nevada mountains of its SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket ship on Thursday, the company said, three years after a fatal accident on an earlier version of the ship.
At about 8 a.m. local time, the VMS Eve carrier plane took off from Mojave, Calif., carrying SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity before releasing it 14,000 metres above ground, Virgin Galactic said in a statement.
.<a href="https://twitter.com/virgingalactic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@virgingalactic</a> back on track. Successful powered flight, Mach 1.6. Data review to come, then on to the next flight. Space feels tantalisingly close now.
—@richardbransonA rocket motor then accelerated Unity to Mach 1.87 during a 30-second rocket burn before the ship's two pilots shut it down. The spaceship reached 25,000 metres before making a smooth runway landing, the company said.
"Space feels tantalisingly close now," Branson Tweeted after the test flight.
Delighted to see <a href="https://twitter.com/virgingalactic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@virgingalactic</a> VSS Unity safely and successfully complete her first manned supersonic, rocket-powered flight <a href="https://t.co/EazA5VZsv6">https://t.co/EazA5VZsv6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSpaceshipCo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@thespaceshipco</a> <a href="https://t.co/VBY1VGqmtC">pic.twitter.com/VBY1VGqmtC</a>
—@richardbransonVirgin Galactic's original SpaceShipTwo vehicle broke apart during an October 2014 test flight that killed the co-pilot and seriously injured the pilot, in an accident that was ultimately attributed to pilot error. Both were employees of Scaled Composites, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary based in Mojave that built the vehicle.
The Spaceship Company, a Virgin Galactic sister firm also owned by Branson's London-based Virgin Group, built the new SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity, the second in a planned fleet of five, and took over the test-flight program from Scaled.
In 2016, the space company was granted an operating licence to fly its passenger ship with the world's first paying space tourists once final safety tests are completed.
The company has not yet announced a date for the start of passenger flights but is selling tickets for a ride aboard SpaceShipTwo at $250,000 US a seat.
Rides will take passengers about 100 kilometres above Earth, high enough to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of Earth set against the blackness of space.