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Virgin Galactic fires up spaceship for the first time since deadly 2014 crash
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Richard Branson's spaceship fired up its rocket engine Thursday, marking the first powered test flight for the company since a fatal crash left it hamstrung in 2014.

Virgin Galactic said in tweets that the pilots brought the spaceship to speeds faster than the speed of sound before gliding to a landing in the Mojave Desert. It conducted a "planned partial duration burn," which means the engine intentionally didn't fire as long as it will on full missions.

Rather than aiming for space using a traditional vertically launched rocket, Virgin Galactic uses a massive plane, called a mothership, to hoist its reusable spaceship into the air before the craft ignites its own engine. The goal is to one day fly paying space tourists into the microgravity environment of space to enjoy stunning views of the Earth.

The company faced a major setback in 2014 when a Virgin Galactic spaceship exploded over California during a test flight, killing one of the craft's co-pilots.

Virgin Galactic has since eased back into testing by conducting gliding test flights of its new spaceship, named VSS Unity. The gliding test flights allowed the spaceship to drift back to the ground after detaching from the mothership rather than powering its engine so it could climb farther away from Earth.

Thursday marked the first time the VSS Unity spaceship has flown with its rocket motor ablaze.

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Virgin Galactic VSS Unity
Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spaceship is lifted into the air by a mothership, called VMS Eve.

The mothership took off around 8 am PT and flew to about 46,500 feet over California's Sierra Nevada Mountains before releasing the Unity spaceship. After a brief free fall, Unity's rocket motor then roared to life for a 30-second burn, vaulting the spaceship to Mach 1.87, or nearly 1,500 miles per hour, and up to a max altitude of 84,000 feet.

That's not nearly as high as the Karman line, which is generally considered the beginning of outer space and lies 62 miles or 327,000 feet above Earth's surface.

After Thursday's test flight, Branson declared his space tourism company is "back on track."

"Data review to come, then on to the next flight," he said in a tweet. "Space feels tantalisingly close now."

Branson said in February that he would be "very disappointed" if Virigin Galactic does not launch into space within the next few months.

The billionaire Virgin Group CEO founded Virgin Galactic in 2004.

Like fellow tech giants Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, Branson has long been a fan of spaceflight. He was inspired by the Ansari XPrize competition that was the catalyst for the very first privately funded manned trip to space, flown in a reusable spacecraft called SpaceShipOne.

Over the course of a decade, Virgin Galactic built and tested the first version of its SpaceShipTwo, called VSS Enterprise, before the 2014 tragedy that killed co-pilot Michael Alsbury and injured co-pilot Peter Siebold.

The company has been recuperating ever since. Its new SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, made its first gliding test flight in 2016.

Virgin Galactic sells tickets - which cost about $250,000 each - aboard its spaceship. The firm says people in more than 50 countries whose ages range from teens to 90s have already put up the cash. They'll need to complete just three days of training before flying, according to Virgin Galactic's website.

 

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http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/05/technology/virgin-galactic-powered-test-flight/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Most+Recent%29
 

 

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  • 8 months later...

Virgin Galactic's new flight test to soar closer to edge of space
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Dec 12, 2018

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Virgin Galactic is preparing for a new flight test Thursday that aims to fly higher and faster than before toward the edge of space.

The US company run by British tycoon Richard Branson is aiming to be the first to take tourists on brief trips into microgravity.

Virgin Galactic's fourth flight test on the VSS Unity is scheduled for Thursday, weather permitting.

The flight will take off from a spaceport in Mojave, California.

The vessel does not launch from Earth but is carried to a higher altitude -- about nine miles (15 kilometers) high -- attached to an airplane.

Then, two pilots on the VSS Unity fire the engines toward the frontier of space, typically defined as an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers).

In July, after burning the rocket motor for 42 seconds, the VSS Unity reached a height of 32 miles, a part of the atmosphere called the mesosphere.

Commercial airplanes typically fly at an altitude of about six miles.

The VSS Unity reached a top speed of over 1,530 miles per hour, or beyond Mach 2.

"Overall the goal of this flight is to fly higher and faster than previous flights," said a statement from Virgin Galactic.

"If all goes to plan our pilots will experience an extended period of micro-gravity as VSS Unity coasts to apogee, although -- being pilots -- they will remain securely strapped in throughout."

Another US rocket company, Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is also racing to be the first to send tourists to space, but using a small rocket to get there.

Virgin's first flight date has been pushed back multiple times, following a test flight accident that killed a co-pilot in 2014.

Branson told CNN in November he hoped to send people to space "before Christmas."

More than 600 clients have already paid $250,000 for a ticket.

ico/ksh/wd

ORIGIN ENERGY

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VIDEO: Virgin tourist trips close as it edges nearer to space?

  • 13 December, 2018
  • SOURCE: FlightGlobal.com
  • BY: Dan Thisdell
  • London

Virgin Galactic's epic journey to the edge of space looks to be at least ending its preliminary testing phase. Flying from its base at Mojave, California, the company's SpaceShipTwo rocket-powered glider reached a top speed of Mach 2.9 and altitude of 271,268ft – or 82.7km (51.4 miles) – with a 60s rocket burn after air launch.

The flight fell short of reaching the internationally recognised 100km boundary between Earth and space. But the performance indicates that, after years of development and a fatal crash setback, the space tourism arm of Richard Branson's Virgin Group empire may finally be approaching the point when it can begin to make good on the several hundred bookings it has taken for short suborbital rides, at a reported ticket price of £250,000 ($316,000).

 

The programme, which has its origins in 2004 and a successful attempt on the Ansari X-Prize, for a private effort to put a person into space. That project, engineered by Burt Rutan and his Scaled Composites company, attracted Virgin sponsorship. Branson decided to create a scaled up, passenger-carrying version and go into the space tourism business.

But work has been slow, and marred by tragedy. A 2007 engine ground test accident killed three Scaled workers. Then, with the project already some years behind schedule, 2014 ended with a crash of SpaceShipTwo itself, killing one test pilot and severely injuring the other.

Testing of a revised design resumed nearly two years after the crash, in September 2016.

Asset ImageSpaceShipTwo returns, 13 December

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

PICTURES: Virgin Galactic VSS Unity reaches edge of space again

  • 22 February, 2019
  • SOURCE: FlightGlobal.com
  • BY: Garrett Reim
  • Los Angeles

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo launched for the second time in ten weeks with three passengers on board, reaching the edge of space above Mojave, California.

As part of its fifth supersonic rocket-powered test flight, the spaceship, named VSS Unity, reached its highest speed and altitude to-date on 22 February: Mach 3.04 and a height of 295,007ft. Turning for home, the spacecraft glided back to Earth, reaching speeds up to M2.7, and landing at Mojave Air and Space Port soon after.

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Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor, looking out window of SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity

 

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Though technically still within the Earth’s atmosphere and not past the 330,000ft Kármán line that must be crossed to enter space, Virgin Galactic noted that the three crew members experienced several minutes of weightlessness. Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor, flew as the third crew member and floated freely in the spacecraft to complete a number of cabin evaluation tests.

The VSS Unity flight also carried several NASA research payloads.

Virgin Galactic says it has signed up about 600 customers to fly aboard its SpaceShipTwo craft as commercial astronauts. Each flight lasts about 90min and has a reported ticket price of around $250,000.

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SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity on ramp day before flight

Virgin Galactic

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SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity rocket burn during launch

Virgin Galactic

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SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity preparing to descend

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