Virgin Galactic accomplished its final test flight on Thursday before taking paying customers on short trips into space, marking what the space tourism company described as a “implausible achievement” on its long road to industrial operations.
Six company employees, including two pilots, landed at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico after a brief up-and-down flight that included several minutes of weightlessness.
The parent ship took about an hour to hold the spaceplane to an altitude of 44,500 feet, where it was launched and fired its rocket engine for the ultimate attack.
“Successful Acceleration, WE REACHED SPACE!” Virgin Galactic wrote on Twitter.
According to the corporate, it reached an altitude of 54.2 miles before descending back to the runway.
Jamila Gilbert, who grew up in southern New Mexico and heads the corporate’s internal communications, was one in all the people on board evaluating what it could seem like for paying customers.
It was hard for her to place the experience into words, saying that it could probably take a lifetime to process the sights and feelings that filled those moments between the rocket launch and the spaceship reaching its highest point.
“It was just magnetic attraction,” she said in an interview. “When I began looking, I felt like I used to be floating within the air. I heard voices. But I could not stop taking a look at the planet and I could not look away.”
Crew member Christopher Huie said that all the pieces appeared to come to a standstill when the spacecraft was released from the cargo plane.
“You’re just waiting for the rocket to fireside,” said Huie, an aerospace engineer. “And I believe that moment was so anticipated that I could have lived in that moment endlessly.”
Then there was a little bit fuss with the launch of the rocket, and the crew was pinned down of their seats as G-forces kicked in.
The flight got here almost two years after founder Richard Branson defeated fellow billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and rocket company Blue Origin in space.
Bezos landed nine days later from West Texas, and Blue Origin has since launched several passenger trips. Federal aviation authorities banned Virgin Galactic from launch after Branson’s flight to research the mishap.
Virgin Galactic has been working for greater than a decade to send paying passengers on short space jumps, and in 2021 it finally got approval from the federal government.
The next step might be for Virgin Galactic to investigate data from Thursday’s flight and inspect aircraft and other equipment as the corporate prepares for industrial service, possibly as soon as late June.
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier admitted delays and missed deadlines through the years.
But on Thursday, he said seeing the crew’s reactions after landing made him consider in what the corporate had built up to now.
The first industrial flight might be attended by members of the Italian Air Force who will conduct experiments. Next up might be the purchasers who bought tickets years ago for the prospect to change into weightless aboard a winged spaceship launching from the belly of an airplane.
About 800 tickets have been sold over the past decade, with the initial batch costing $200,000 each. Tickets now cost $450,000 per person.
Virgin Galactic has made spaceflight five times since 2018 and can aim for 400 flights a yr from Spaceport America after it completes construction of the subsequent class of rocket-powered aircraft at its facility in neighboring Arizona.
After Branson’s trip, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the flights while investigating an issue that caused the rocket to veer off track while descending back to the runway within the New Mexico desert.
Virgin Galactic stressed on the time that Branson and others were never in any danger.
The company made changes to its carrier and spacecraft.
The delay was almost twice so long as expected, partly on account of supply chain issues and labor shortages.
Branson joined the ranks of shoppers who watched Thursday’s flight from Spaceport America.
Huie, a senior manager in Virgin Galactic’s aerospace engineering team, said the corporate is prepared for industrial service and might be expanding its fleet in the approaching years.
“We wish to scale up in an enormous way,” he said, “and the goal is to populate multiple spaceports with multiple spacecraft and motherships and send tons of of individuals into space every year.”
