‘Welcome to space’: Virgin Galactic’s tourism rocket has reached the edge of space for the first time with crew on board, soaring more than 50 MILES above Earth’s surface in milestone flight test
Virgin Galactic’s test flight took off just after 10am (ET) in the Mojave Desert, with two pilots on board
The WhiteKnightTwo mothership carried SpaceShipTwo to altitude of more than 50,000ft before separating
Then, pilots fired up SpaceShipTwo’s rocket motors for a 60 second burn, bringing it higher than ever
Craft hit altitude of 51.4 miles, passing 50m point used by NASA and Air Force for awarding ‘astronaut wings’
The company wants to fly tourists to an altitude of 360,890ft, and is charging £190,000 ($250,000) for a spot
By CHEYENNE MACDONALD
DAILYMAIL.COM
13 December 2018
Virgin Galactic has reached the edge of space for the first time, in a milestone accomplishment for Richard Branson’s space tourism endeavors.
The aerospace firm’s SpaceShipTwo craft reached a boundary more than 50 miles above Earth on Thursday morning after blasting off on a critical flight test in the Mojave Desert.
To do this, the company had to push its rocket motor to the longest burn duration yet, ‘resulting in us going higher than we have before.’
Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo mothership took off shortly after 10 a.m. (ET) from the Mojave airstrip carrying SpaceShipTwo.
According to the firm, SpaceShipTwo’s rocket motor burned for 60 seconds during Thursday’s test, bringing the craft to a final altitude of 51.4 miles (82.7 kilometers).
In addition to its pilots, the aircraft carried NASA payloads for the first time, in effort to bring it as close as possible to commercial weight.
‘Today, for the first time in history, a crewed spaceship, built to carry private passengers, reached space,’ Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson said from the flight line after the successful flight.
‘Today we completed our first revenue generating flight and our pilots earned their Commercial Astronaut Wings. Today, we have shown that Virgin Galactic really can open space to change the world for good.’
‘This is a momentous day and I could not be more proud of our teams who together have opened a new chapter of space exploration,’ Branson said.
Over the course of just under an hour after taking off, the tandem aircraft climbed higher and higher before eventually separating at more than 50,000 feet above the surface.
Pilots Mark ‘Forger’ Stucky and CJ Sturckow fired up SpaceShipTwo’s rocket motor at 11 a.m., bringing the craft to Mach 1.4 speed seconds later.
In less than a minute, it achieved Mach 2.9 – or 2.9 times the speed of sound.
And, within a matter of seconds, the craft was at ‘250,000ft and rising,’ hitting the 50-mile mark just 2 minutes after separation.
‘SpaceShipTwo, welcome to space,’ Virgin Galactic tweeted.
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