Virgin Galactic conducts first suborbital spaceflight since 2021
Posted: Sat, May 27, 2023, 10:56 AM ET (1456 GMT)
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo made its first suborbital spaceflight in nearly two years Thursday. The vehicle, named VSS Unity, launched from its VMS Eve carrier aircraft at 12:23 pm EDT (1623 GMT), reaching a peak altitude of 87.2 kilometers before gliding back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in New Mexico. There were two pilots and four company mission specialists on the flight, the first to go to space since a July 2021 mission that carried company founder Richard Branson. Unlike other commercial spaceflight companies, Virgin Galactic did not webcast the launch, providing only a trickle of social media text updates. This was the last test flight planned for SpaceShipTwo before beginning commercial service with a flight for the Italian Air Force scheduled for as soon as late June.
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo made its first suborbital spaceflight in nearly two years Thursday. The vehicle, named VSS Unity, launched from its VMS Eve carrier aircraft at 12:23 pm EDT (1623 GMT), reaching a peak altitude of 87.2 kilometers before gliding back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in New Mexico. There were two pilots and four company mission specialists on the flight, the first to go to space since a July 2021 mission that carried company founder Richard Branson. Unlike other commercial spaceflight companies, Virgin Galactic did not webcast the launch, providing only a trickle of social media text updates. This was the last test flight planned for SpaceShipTwo before beginning commercial service with a flight for the Italian Air Force scheduled for as soon as late June.| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
SpaceX sets Nov. 18 launch date for sixth Starship test flight
Posted: Sat, Nov 9 9:57 AM ET (1457 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, November 24
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base
KFMB-TV San Diego — 2:26 am ET (0726 GMT) Dawn Aerospace Achieves Historic Flight - Breaks Sound Barrier and Global Records
Dawn Aerospace — 2:23 am ET (0723 GMT) Elon Musk’s most remarkable achievement – making space travel boring
The Independent — 2:21 am ET (0721 GMT) SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites on the 400th Falcon 9 rocket
Spaceflight Now — 2:12 am ET (0712 GMT) Watch Rocket Lab launch 5 French 'Internet of Things' satellites Nov. 24
SPACE.com — 2:11 am ET (0711 GMT) |
