Virgin Galactic's most recent test flight looks totally sci-fi in new video
Virgin Galactic has done it again.
The Richard Branson-founded spaceflight company just lofted and landed the second powered test flight of its SpaceShipTwo named Unity, and it seems to have gone well.
One day, Virgin Galactic hopes that Unity will take paying customers to the edge of space, allowing them to feel weightlessness before coming back to Earth for a smooth landing.
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But Tuesday's flight was all about working out the kinks in the system, and all seems to have gone according to plan.
Image: virgin galactic
The new Virgin Galactic video of the flight shows Unity being released from its carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo before its rocket engine kicks on, propelling itself under its own power up to an altitude of 114,500 feet and reaching a speed of Mach 1.9 before gliding back to the Mojave Desert for landing.
This is similar to the flight profile that a typical commercial flight might take once the company starts flying customers in the coming years.
"Today we saw VSS Unity in her natural environment, flying fast under rocket power and with a nose pointing firmly towards the black sky of space,” Branson said in a statement.
Image: Virgin galactic
Virgin Galactic is selling seats aboard its spacecraft for $250,000 and about 650 of them have been purchased so far.
Branson has effectively stopped coming out with estimates for when the first non-test SpaceShipTwo flight will launch, but if these tests continue to go well, the first passengers could fly to the edge of space in the next year or two.
The most recent test flights come after the fatal crash of Virgin Galactic's first SpaceShipTwo in 2014. Unity's two powered test flights are the first for the company since that fatal accident killed one pilot and left the other in critical condition.
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