Posted: Mon, Dec 22, 2008, 1:37 PM ET (1837 GMT)
WhiteKnightTwo, the carrier aircraft for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suborbital space tourism vehicle, made its inaugural test flight Sunday morning in California. The aircraft took off from Mojave Air and Space Port at 11:17 am EST (1617 GMT) and landed back at the airport one hour later. The aircraft, with a distinctive dual fuselage design, was rolled out in late July and had performed a series of taxi tests at the airport before Sunday's flight. The aircraft is designed to carry SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of up to 15,000 meters, at which point SpaceShipTwo will be released and fire its rocket engine for a suborbital flight to over 100 kilometers altitude. Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, the company developing WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, have not set a timetable for the first flight of the suborbital vehicle, although observers expect the spacecraft to be unveiled in the first half of 2009.

Related Links:

•  SPACE.com article
•  Flight International article (with video)