First Virgin test flight hits snag at spaceport
Crew returns safely after craft’s rocket fails to ignite
Virgin Galactic attempted its first spaceflight from New Mexico on Saturday morning and met with complications.
According to nasaspaceflight.com, a blog that tracks rocket launches, two veteran astronauts took off in a smaller spacecraft attached to a larger one. After the smaller aircraft was released at high altitude, it lit its engine but aborted one second into firing, according to the blog.
Virgin Galactic posted on social media that everyone was safe.
“The ignition sequence for the rocket motor did not complete. Vehicle and crew are in great shape,” the company said on Twitter. “We have several motors ready at Spaceport America. We will check the vehicle and be back to flight soon.”
Virgin Galactic did not respond to requests for comment Saturday.
More than 600 customers from around the world have purchased tickets to be launched to the edge of
space where they can experience weightlessness and view the Earth from high above, although it is still unclear when New Mexico’s first commercial spaceflights will launch. The suborbital flights are designed to reach an altitude of at least 50 miles before gliding to a landing.
“The first chapter of Virgin Galactic has been to accomplish an incredibly difficult task — creating a spaceflight system that can fly humans to space, give them a gift of a changed perspective and then bring them safely home,” CEO Michael Colglazier told The New Mexican last month. “We are close to completing this task.”
British billionaire Richard Branson and former Gov. Bill Richardson announced plans in 2006 to build the for-profit spaceport.
Since then, the state has spent about $220 million building the facility with the hope that it would return about $75 million to the state’s coffers. The investment has prompted some state leaders to question when it finally will deliver commercial flights.
State Rep. Rebecca Dow, a Republican whose district covers the spaceport in Sierra County, said the facility has been a good investment for the area, and similar projects in other states have relied on more state government support than what New Mexico has dished out.
“There’s not a lot of opportunity in Sierra County. An average household income of $39,000 is not OK with me,” Dow said. “At the start of the pandemic, the construction around the spaceport helped hold us harmless as one of the only projects going in the county.”
Dow added the company employees 180 people with an annual payroll around $11 million and pays vendors in the state around $30 million per year.