After four years of quiet construction, Virgin Galactic stormed back into the space tourism industry yesterday with the unveiling of VSS Unity, their second vehicle for commercial flights.
The unveiling took place among pomp and circumstance at an airstrip in Mojave, California just north of Los Angeles, where The Spaceship Company, a subsidiary of Virgin Galactic, has been focused on assembly. The event was attended by hundreds of journalists, staff and celebrity guests including Harrison Ford and Richard Branson. Legendary physicist Stephen Hawking also made a video appearance to name the new aircraft.
"We are entering a new space age and I hope, this will help to create a new unity," said Dr. Hawking in a prepared statement. "Space exploration has already been a great unifier – we seem able to cooperate between nations in space in a way we can only envy on Earth."
The launch of VSS Unity marks a turning point for Virgin Galactic, which faced heavy criticism after the loss of their first commercial vehicle in 2014. That vehicle, the VSS Enterprise, crashed over the Mojave Desert during a test flight after the copilot deployed the fail feather -- an onboard breaking system -- incorrectly during the flight cycle. Both the VSS Enterprise and the Unity have a similar design called SpaceShipTwo, though new procedures have been put into place to prevent any further tail feathering missteps.
Each commercial flight is operated by two separate aircraft. SpaceShipTwo, the vehicle unveiled yesterday, carriers two crew and six passengers into suborbital space. Separately and prior to suborbital flight, a carrier aircraft known as WhiteKnightTwo takes the launch vehicle up to 50,000 ft before deploying it.
Virgin Galactic plans to use VSS Unity to continue testing pursuant to eventually launching commercial space flights. Prior to earning an FAA license to carry passengers, the carrier needs to compete test missions at full speed and altitude (62 miles). So far, test flights have only reached altitudes of 13 miles.
With the return of an operational SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic can resume its trajectory towards delivering space flight to the common public. So far, the company has raised $80M in deposits for over 300 trips into space. With the final raft of testing now back in the schedule, the carrier can finally look towards fulfilling those orders.
