Virgin Galactic is about to start a key series of powered test flights of its passenger rocket plane. These included take-off and landing along with high-altitude release from the mothership, VMS Eve, which was piloted by Michael Masucci and Kelly Latimer.This flight milestone represents a major achievement, which has been in the planning since SpaceShipTwo relocated to Virgin Galactic’s New Mexico commercial headquarters in February. Today, for the first time in history, a crewed spaceship, built to carry private paying passengers, reached space. Watching on from the flight line with the incredible Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company teams was one of the proudest moments of my life. Virgin Galactic is a British spaceflight company within the Virgin Group. At the time, then-CEO Mr Whitesides said that space was “hard and today is a tough day”.Celebrities, including Justin Bieber and Leonardo DiCaprio, are all believed to have already booked tickets onto the flight.Newly-appointed chief executive Michael Colglazier said the fascination with spaceflight was “universal”.Unveiled by Mr Branson in 2009, SpaceshipTwo takes off and lands on a runway like a traditional aeroplane.
The vehicles climbed to an altitude of 51,000ft before Unity was released, at which point it flew freely for the first time in New Mexico airspace. Virgin Galactic's spaceship VSS Unity landed in the New Mexico desert on Friday, marking its first glide flight from Spaceport America as the company moves toward commercial operations. The powered ascents will see Unity ignite its hybrid rocket motor to climb to the edge of space. The company has previously said it planned to operate its first commercial flights this year, though it has not given an update on expected dates for this for several months.The SpaceshipTwo vehicle, known as VSS Unity, will have space for six space tourists and is expected to launch its first commercial service later this year.We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future.Three or four more flights with four test passengers will then be carried out before Sir Richard makes his debut.Passengers will also be able to make direct contact with the pilots during the flight using screens attached to the seats.Images of the spacecraft show a series of circular windows giving passengers - who will pay $250,000 (£194,000) for the experience - a variety of viewing angles of Earth.The space travel company has hundreds of customers signed up to be among the world's first space tourists“The spaceship cabin interior is in many ways the design centrepiece of the astronaut journey, and what has been created will both facilitate and elevate a uniquely profound and transformational journey for the thousands who will fly,” he said.The layout of the cabin has been set up to allow travellers to make the most of an “unrestricted float zone” when in zero gravity.George Whitesides, chief space officer, said there could be up to six more flights before Sir Richard stepped aboard the first commercial journey for the company.
The company's Unity vehicle has so far conducted only glide flights after moving into its operational base in New Mexico earlier this year. Recovered from a 2014 accident and subsequent redesigns, the company is moving into its New Mexico Spaceport. Virgin Galactic recognizes that the answers to many of the challenges we face in sustaining life on our beautiful planet, lie in making better use of space. Whitesides said the cost may increase for a while but the long-term goal is to make the adventure more accessible, possibly at a lower cost.“We think that there’s a real memory burn that customers are going to have when they see that analog reflection of themselves in the back of the cabin, seeing themselves floating freely in space ... that very personal interaction that they’ll have with the experience,” he said.Highly detailed amenities to enhance the customer flight experience were shown in an online event revealing the cabin of the company’s rocket plane, a type called SpaceShipTwo, which is undergoing testing in preparation for commercial service.The passengers will need to return to their seats after a few minutes as the craft reorients and begins to interact with the increasing density of the atmosphere and then glides to an unpowered landing.Virgin Galactic was founded by British billionaire Richard Branson after the prize-winning flights of the experimental SpaceShipOne in 2004. This included changes to the work areas and procedures to enforce social distancing, as well as universal mask usage.This glide flight provided the first opportunity to test all the components required to fly the carrier aircraft and spaceship in glide configuration, from a new home base and in new airspace. It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists and suborbital launches for space science missions. Once the flight reaches its “pinnacle” all lighting in the cabin is extinguished to focus travellers on the “beautiful vista”.He said ticket prices would also be increased due to high demand, though declined to give specifics. x. Virgin Galactic has successfully completed its first SpaceShipTwo test flight from Spaceport America.
Branson’s space effort had suffered delays due to major engineering changes that were required after the 2014 crash of its VSS Enterprise, which killed pilot Michael Alsbury.