Virgin Galactic: Rocket Reaches Space In Flight Again

by JOHN ANTCZAK, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) –

The Virgin Galactic rocket plane reached the space for the second time during a test flight over California on Friday, climbing higher and faster than it did. previously while boarding a crew member to evaluate the long-awaited experience of the passengers.

The winged spacecraft climbed three times faster than sound at 89.8 km altitude before heading for a safe landing at Mojave Air and Space Port in the desert north of Los Angeles, Virgin said Galactic.

In addition to chief pilot David Mackay and co-pilot Mike "Sooch" Masucci, the crew also included Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor, Beth Moses.

Moses, described as an expert microgravity researcher evaluating the passenger cabin, was free to test elements from within.

Virgin Galactic is working on commercial operations that will take passengers on supersonic bends in the depths of space to live a few minutes of weightlessness and a view of the Earth below.

The company intends to operate a fleet of spacecraft outside of Spaceport America, in the high desert of southern New Mexico.

The flight was delayed for two days because of the winds, and company founder Richard Branson tweeted that he needed to miss it to attend a concert in Colombia to raise funds to help Venezuela in crisis.

"Sad to miss a space flight, but looking forward to seeing the concert," he wrote.

The spacecraft, called VSS Unity, is carried away by a special aircraft and released at high altitude where it ignites its rocket. It reached space for the first time on December 13 on a flight at an altitude of 51.4 miles (82.7 km) to just under Mach 3.

Earlier this month, the rocket engine of this flight was donated to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and drivers Mark "Forger", Stucky and Rick "CJ" Sturckow have been awarded astronaut wings by the US Department of Transportation.

The only previous commercial astronauts wings were awarded to pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, for their flights in 2004 in SpaceShipOne, the predecessor of the Virgin Galactic rocket plane, dubbed SpaceShipTwo.

One of the main objectives of Friday's flight was to assess his handling during the descent with his two tails rotated upwards in relation to the fuselage.

The "feathered" configuration is used to slow down and stabilize the machine which falls back into the thickening atmosphere. The name comes from designer Burt Rutan comparing the mechanism to the feathers of a badminton shuttlecock. The tails return to the normal position for sliding towards the Earth.

Altitude and speed were not specific targets for the flight, said George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic, earlier this week.

"If we have some type of burn at nominal duration, we will be pretty high, but it's not one of the goals of the formal test for this one," he said.

Whitesides indicated that the aesthetics of the cabin, including coloring and the play of sunlight on the surfaces, was considered important and that the emphasis on the cabin also indicated that the program was advancing .

"That does not mean that we have completely completed vehicle testing, but we are really starting to move to the indoor testing phase, and that's a very important step for the company," she said. he declared.

Whitesides said that he could not say how many test flights remained to be performed.

"We're getting there, I mean we're making good progress, and I do not think it's a huge number remaining now, there's light at the end of the tunnel now," he said.

Branson said he would like to make his first space flight this summer, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing.

"I think he'd like to fly as soon as possible, and we'd like to find ways to make that happen," he said.

But Whitesides could not commit to a date.

Like the December flight, VSS Unity again delivered a payload of various experiments organized as part of a NASA program.