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
|
|
New Virgin Galactic spaceplane arrives at Spaceport America
Posted: Sat, Oct 31 10:38 AM ET (1438 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Thursday, November 5
Billionaire Mittal’s Satellite Ambition Pitches OneWeb Against Musk’s Starlink
Bloomberg News — 6:32 am ET (1132 GMT) Finland is building its own space command
Defence24 — 6:32 am ET (1132 GMT) Space Force chief: Intelligence officials ‘making sure we get lessons learned’ from recent Russian satellite maneuvers near commercial sat
Defensescoop — 6:32 am ET (1132 GMT) Voyager hires former Space Force Gen. Saltzman
Colorado Springs Gazette — 6:32 am ET (1132 GMT) Space Force Chief Eyes Growth in Components to Meet Operational Demand
Air and Space Forces Magazine — 6:31 am ET (1131 GMT) |
