Posted: Thu, Apr 8, 2004, 4:00 PM ET (2000 GMT)
SpaceShipOne, the reusable suborbital spacecraft being developed by Scaled Composites, made its second powered flight early Thursday, flying twice the speed of sound. According to a report by the X Prize Foundation, SpaceShipOne fired its main engines for 40 seconds on this test flight, reaching top speed of approximately Mach 2 and a peak altitude of about 32 kilometers. The report indicated no problems with the flight. Details about the flight had not been publicly announced by Scaled Composites as of mid-afternoon Thursday. The flight comes just a day after the FAA announced that it had awarded Scaled a launch license to conduct a series of suborbital flights of the vehicle. The vehicle's first powered flight, on December 17, as well as a series of glide tests, were all conducted under an experimental aviation license.
