Rocket plane reaches space again
Virgin Galactic’s rocket plane reached space for a second time in a test flight over California yesterday, climbing higher and faster than before while also carrying a crew member to evaluate the long-awaited passenger experience.
The winged spaceship soared at three times the speed of sound to an altitude of 89.8 kilometres before gliding to a safe landing at Mojave Air and Space Port in the desert north of Los Angeles, Virgin Galactic said.
In addition to chief pilot David Mackay and co-pilot Mike ‘‘Sooch’’ Masucci, the crew included Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor, Beth Moses. Described as an expert microgravity researcher in charge of evaluating the passenger cabin, Moses floated free to test elements of the interior.
Virgin Galactic is working towards commercial operations that will take passengers on supersonic thrill rides to the lower reaches of space to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and a view of Earth below.
The company intends to operate a fleet of spaceships out of Spaceport America in the high desert of southern New Mexico.
The flight was delayed for two days due to winds, and company founder Richard Branson tweeted that he had to miss it so he could attend a concert in Colombia to raise money for humanitarian aid to crisis-stricken Venezuela.
The spaceship, VSS Unity, is carried aloft by a special carrier aircraft and released at high altitude, where it ignites its rocket. It first reached space on December 13, reaching an altitude of 82.7km at slightly less than Mach 3.
A major goal of yesterday’s flight was evaluating its handling during descent with its twin tails rotated upwards relative to the fuselage. The ‘‘feathered’’ configuration is used to slow and stabilise the craft as it falls back into the thickening atmosphere.
Unity also carried a payload of various experiments organised under a Nasa programme.
Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides could not say how many more test flights remained.
‘‘We’re making good progress. There’s light at the end of the tunnel now,’’ he said.
Branson has said he would like to make his first flight to space this year, on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. –AP