SpaceShipTwo reaches edge of space on latest test flight
Posted: Sun, Dec 16, 2018, 12:38 PM ET (1738 GMT)
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flew to the edge of space for the first time Thursday. The vehicle, named VSS Unity, took off Thursday morning from Mojave Air and Space Port attached to its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft. At 11 a.m. Eastern, SpaceShipTwo separated from WhiteKnightTwo and fired its hybrid rocket motor for 60 seconds. The vehicle reached a peak altitude of nearly 83 kilometers and top speed of Mach 2.9 before gliding back to Mojave. Virgin Galactic declared the flight a success and called it its first space flight, noting that it exceeded the altitude of 50 miles used by U.S. government agencies to award astronaut wings even though it did not reach the 100-kilometer Karman Line. Besides testing the performance of the vehicle, SpaceShipTwo carried for experiments for NASA's Flight Opportunities program.
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flew to the edge of space for the first time Thursday. The vehicle, named VSS Unity, took off Thursday morning from Mojave Air and Space Port attached to its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft. At 11 a.m. Eastern, SpaceShipTwo separated from WhiteKnightTwo and fired its hybrid rocket motor for 60 seconds. The vehicle reached a peak altitude of nearly 83 kilometers and top speed of Mach 2.9 before gliding back to Mojave. Virgin Galactic declared the flight a success and called it its first space flight, noting that it exceeded the altitude of 50 miles used by U.S. government agencies to award astronaut wings even though it did not reach the 100-kilometer Karman Line. Besides testing the performance of the vehicle, SpaceShipTwo carried for experiments for NASA's Flight Opportunities program.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Wednesday, May 27
OneWeb applies to FCC for bigger fleet authorisation
Telecompaper — 7:21 am ET (1121 GMT) COVID, OneWeb and how the Space Development Agency has coped
C4ISRnet — 7:20 am ET (1120 GMT) I laughed a lot at Netflix’s Space Force, but my inner space wonk cried
Ars Technica — 7:18 am ET (1118 GMT) NASA eyes Aug. for SpaceX ship liftoff with Japanese astronaut aboard
Kyodo International — 7:16 am ET (1116 GMT) SpaceX raises $346 million in most recent funding round
CNBC — 7:16 am ET (1116 GMT) |
