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Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spacecraft completed its first rocket-powered test flight this week.
Tuesday 30th April 2013 | ARIANE
The rocket plane SpaceShipTwo, which it is hoped will carry intrepid travellers into space next year, is expected to break the sound barrier during the test, which will take off from Spaceport America, weather permitting. Sir Richard said that the flight would be an “historic” occasion: “This is going to be Virgin Galactic's year,” he said in an interview.
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo has made its first powered flight, breaking the sound barrier in a test over the Mojave Desert that moves the company closer to its goal of flying paying passengers on brief hops into space.
Until Monday, SpaceShipTwo had only performed unpowered glide flights. Several powered flights are planned this summer, culminating with a dash into space targeted toward the end of the year.
SpaceShipTwo is a prototype commercial version of SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 became the first privately developed manned rocket to reach space. Since the historic flight, more than 500 aspiring space tourists have paid $200,000 or plunked down deposits, patiently waiting for a chance to float in weightlessness and view the Earth's curvature from 62 miles up.
Branson initially predicted commercial flights would begin in 2007, but a deadly explosion during ground testing and longer-than-expected test flights pushed the deadline back.
No date has been set for the first commercial flight from a custom-designed spaceport in New Mexico, but Virgin Galactic executives have said it will come after testing is complete and it secures approval from the government. Branson previously said the maiden passenger flight will carry his family.
