Virgin Galactic on Saturday made its first rocket-powered flight from New Mexico to the fringe of space in a crewed shuttle, as the company forges toward offering tourist flights to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.
High above the desert in a cloudless sky, the VSS Unity ignited its rocket to hurtle the ship and two pilots toward space.
A live feed by NASASpaceFlight.com showed the ship accelerating upward and confirmed a landing later via radar.
Virgin Galactic announced that its VSS Unity shuttle accelerated to three times the speed of sound and reached an altitude of just more than 89km above sea level before making its gliding return through the atmosphere.
British billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson said the flight and landing bring the roughly 15-year-old venture tantalizingly close to commercial flights for tourists.
Virgin Galactic has said those flights could begin next year.
“Today was just an incredible step in the right direction,” Branson told reporters shortly after the flight landings. “It tested a lot of new systems that the teams have been building and they all worked.”
Virgin Galactic chief executive officer Michael Colglazier said at least two more undated test flights lie ahead — the next with four mission specialist passengers in the cabin.
Pending trials also include a flight that would take Branson to the edge of space.
“The flight today was elegant, beautiful,” Colglazier said. “We’re going to analyze all the data that we gather on these flights. But watching from the ground and speaking with our pilots, it was magnificent. So now it’s time for us to do this again.”
Virgin Galactic said the flight provided an assessment of upgrades to a horizontal stabilizer, other flight controls and a suite of cabin cameras designed to provide live images of the flight to people on the ground.
The shuttle also carried a scientific payload in cooperation with NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.
Preparations for the latest flight included a maintenance review of the special carrier plane that flies the six-passenger spacecraft to a high altitude, where it is released so it can fire its rocket motor and make the final push to space.
The first powered test of the rocket ship in New Mexico from Spaceport America was delayed repeatedly before Saturday’s launch. In December last year, computer trouble caused by electromagnetic interference prevented the spaceship’s rocket from firing properly. Instead of soaring toward space, the ship and its two pilots were forced to make an immediate landing.
While Virgin Galactic’s stock price ticked up this week with the announcement of the latest test being scheduled for Saturday, it was not enough to overcome the losses seen since a peak in February.
Some analysts have said that it could be a while before the company sees profits, as the exact start of commercial operations is still up in the air.
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