spacetoday.net: SpaceShipTwo flies to space from New Mexico

SpaceShipTwo flies to space from New Mexico

Posted: Tue, May 25, 2021, 8:01 PM ET (0001 GMT)
SpaceShipTwo in space, May 2021 (Virgin Galactic)

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane made its first flight to the edge of space in more than two years Saturday. The VSS Unity vehicle was released from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft at 11:26 am EDT, nearly an hour after takeoff from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The vehicle, with two pilots on board, flew a "near-perfect" flight, reaching a peak altitude of 89.2 kilometers before gliding back to a landing at Spaceport America. The flight was the first powered flight of SpaceShipTwo since February 2019, and the first from New Mexico. This was the first in a series of four suborbital flights of the vehicle the company has scheduled for the next several months before beginning commercial service, now expected in early 2022.