spacetoday.net: Virgin Galactic again delays SpaceShipTwo flights

Posted: Fri, Feb 26, 2021, 10:08 AM ET (1508 GMT)
SpaceShipTwo during flight 2018 December 13 (MarsScientific.com and Trumbull Studios)

Virgin Galactic won't start regularly flying space tourists until early next year because of delays in its test program. The company said Thursday that it has postponed its next SpaceShipTwo test flight to May to correct electromagnetic interference issues. That interference was the likely cause of an aborted test flight in December. Virgin plans to perform two more test flights in the summer, and then a commercial flight carrying payloads and personnel for the Italian Air Force. Virgin expects to begin test flights of its next suborbital vehicle, called SpaceShip III, this summer. However, the company will pause tests of both the current and new vehicles late this year to perform work on the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, pushing out the start of tourist flights to early 2022.