![]() ![]() Most have paid between $250,000 and $450,000 for a ticket. The test mission follows the type of rides Virgin Galactic intends to provide for a backlog of some 800 customers. VSS Unity spent a few minutes in the weightlessness of space before gliding back to land. Virgin Galactic pilots Jameel Janjua and Nicola Pecile piloted the carrier aircraft, named VMS Eve, which dropped the VSS Unity spacecraft at an altitude of 44,500 feet (13,563.6 m). Federal Aviation Administration delayed the plans, as did a lengthy spacecraft upgrade period that lasted longer than Virgin Galactic anticipated. Virgin Galactic had hoped that high-profile mission would open the door to routine flights soon after.Ī safety probe into Branson's flight by the U.S. The flight comes 22 months after billionaire Branson and employees rode to the edge of space aboard its centerpiece SpaceShipTwo spaceplane. ![]() The company's Unity 25 mission, lasting roughly 90 minutes in all, is a crucial final test flight before it flies its first commercial mission in late June, hoping to carry out a mission roughly every month thereafter. The spaceplane glided back to land at around 12:37 p.m., Virgin Galactic said. "Successful boost, WE HAVE REACHED SPACE!," Virgin Galactic wrote on Twitter.Ī live video stream from private video news group NASA Spaceflight showed VSS Unity jetting away from its carrier craft, its sole rocket engine leaving a trail of white exhaust as it climbed to an altitude of roughly 54.2 miles (87.2 km), beyond the U.S.-recognized boundary of Earth's outer atmosphere and space.
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