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Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Gears Up For First Passenger Flights
This year is key for Virgin Galactic's bid to become the first commercial spaceliner service, as rocket-powered flights of its SpaceShipTwo are on the books for summer.
Meanwhile, assembly of a second vehicle pair — the WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane and another SpaceShipTwo suborbital space plane — is in progress at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
Details of this year's Virgin Galactic milestones were highlighted by George Whitesides, chief executive officer and president of Virgin Galactic, at a Jan. 20 meeting here of The Aerospace & Defense Forum in Los Angeles Chapter.
Up to space altitude
"We're now up to over 75 test flights of the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft and 16 glide flights of the suborbital spaceship," Whitesides said. "We will have more glide flights over the course of the spring." [Rise of SpaceShipTwo: The Test Flights Photos]
For these glide flights, WhiteKnightTwo carries SpaceShipTwo up to mid-air, and then drops the smaller plane to make an unpowered glide back to the ground. However, the company is ramping up toward making the first powered test flights of SpaceShipTwo, which will fire the rocket motor it will eventually use to reach the edge of space.
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