Virgin Galactic rocket ship reaches space
Virgin Galactic’s tourism spaceship climbed more than 50 miles high above California’s Mojave Desert on Thursday, reaching for the first time what the company considers the boundary of space.
The rocket ship reached an altitude of 51 miles (82 km) before beginning its gliding descent, said mission official Enrico Palermo. The craft landed on a runway minutes later.
“We made it to space!” Palermo said.
Thursday’s flight takes Virgin Galactic a big step closer to turning the dream of commercial space tourism into reality. The company aims to take paying customers on the sixpassenger rocket, which is about the size of an executive jet. Virgin Galactic found Richard Branson has said he wants to be one of the first on board.
Branson greeted the pilots after the test, declaring “Space is Virgin territory!”
Virgin Galactic considers 50 miles (80 km) the boundary of space because it is used by the US Air Force and other US agencies. That’s different from a long-held view that the boundary is at 62 miles (100 km). Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides noted that recent research favours the lower altitude.
At the start of the test flight, a special jet carrying the Virgin Space Ship Unity climbed to an altitude near 43,000 feet (13,100m) before releasing the craft. The spaceship ignited its rocket engine and it quickly hurtled upward and out of sight of viewers on the ground.
The two test pilots - Mark “Forger” Stucky and former NASA astronaut Rick “CJ” Sturckow - will be awarded commercial astronaut wings, said Federal Aviation Administration official Bailey Edwards.