TAKE TWO
Virgin Galactic announces next window for space test flight
Virgin Galactic is set for its next attempt to reach space from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico after announcing a new flight window Monday morning that begins Feb. 13.
The company said the window will remain open through February, with the flight depending on good weather conditions and technical readiness.
It will be the first attempt to fly the Unity spaceship to suborbit since a failed flight Dec. 12, when the rocket engine suddenly shut down after the craft broke away from the mothership, forcing the two pilots on board to abort the mission and glide back to Earth.
The company said Monday it’s conducted root-cause analysis for the December failure, which happened after the onboard computer lost connection at time of ignition, triggering a safety mechanism that shut the rocket motor off. The company provided no further details, but it said its team has completed corrective work and carried out extensive ground testing.
“The next stage will be to assess and verify this work during a rocketpowered flight,” the company said in a release.
The upcoming flight will include original test objectives from the December flight, including evaluating conditions in the passenger cabin where paying tourists will sit when commercial spaceflights begin, and assessment of upgraded stabilizers and flight controls. It will also carry experimental payloads for NASA.
“We are pleased to be able to get back to the skies and continue our flight test program,” said CEO Michael Colglazier in a statement.
If successful, the new flight will mark the Unity’s first time reaching space from New Mexico. It reached suborbit two times before from the Mojave Air & Space Port in California.
It’s since conducted two successful glide tests in New Mexico, in which the Unity breaks away from the mothership VMS Eve at about 50,000 feet up and then glides back to Earth. But successful powered flights — whereby pilots fire up the rocket motors after disconnecting from Eve to shoot into
space at 50 miles up — are the next critical step before launching commercial operations.
The company said last year it would conduct three powered test flights before welcoming paying passengers onboard — the upcoming flight, followed by one with four Virgin Galactic team members in the cabin, and a final flight with company founder Sir Richard Branson onboard.
It said in November Branson’s flight could happen in late March, but December’s failed test has likely set back that target date.
Meanwhile, company shares on the New York Stock Exchange soared to unprecedented heights in the last two weeks, climbing from about $26 a share following the failed December test to above $50 Monday morning.
The new flight window may be encouraging investors. But stock analysts say the same phenomenon of market newcomers using the popular Reddit page to pump up stock in companies like GameStop and AMC Networks is also likely boosting Virgin Galactic as well.