Courtesy: Virgin Galactic
VSS Enterprise achieves manned free flight from over 45,000 ft (13,700 metres) and successfully glides in 11 minutes to land at Mojave Air and Spaceport
10th October 2010, Mojave, CA. Virgin Galactic, the US company developing the world's first commercial manned space flight system and tourism business, is delighted to announce the successful completion today of the first piloted free flight of SpaceShipTwo, named the VSS Enterprise. The spaceship was released from its mothership at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13,700 metres).
During its first flight the spaceship was piloted by Pete Siebold, assisted by Mike Alsbury as co-pilot. The two main goals of the flight were to carry out a clean release of the spaceship from its mothership and for the pilots to free fly and glide back and land at Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
Other detailed objectives of the flight were successfully completed, including; verification that all systems worked prior and following the clean release of Enterprise; initial evaluation of handling and stall characteristics; qualitative evaluation of stability and control of SS2 against predictions from design and simulation work; verification of performance by evaluating the lift-to-drag ratio of the spaceship during glide flight; practice a landing approach at altitude and finally descend and land.
Preparations for the milestone flight were extensive. The WhiteKnightTwo mothership (Eve) flew 40 times including 4 captive carry flights of spaceship and mothership mated together. The most recent captive carry was on Sept 30th. The most recent solo flight was on October 5th and demonstrated that all the systems required for a free flight by the VSS Enterprise were functioning correctly without any safety issues. Commenting on the successful flight Scaled Composites pilot, Pete Siebold, said "The VSS Enterprise was a real joy to fly, especially when one considers the fact that the vehicle has been designed not only to be a Mach 3.5 spaceship capable of going into space but also one of the worlds highest altitude gliders."
Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, who was present during the first successful flight, added "This was one of the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin. For the first time since we seriously began the project in 2004, I watched the world's first manned commercial spaceship landing on the runway at Mojave Air and Space Port and it was a great moment. Now, the sky is no longer the limit and we will begin the process of pushing beyond to the final frontier of space itself over the next year."
Virgin Galactic is now well on the way to becoming the world's first commercial space line with 370 customer deposits totaling $50 million. Future commercial operations will be at Spaceport America in New Mexico where final preparations are taking place for a finished runway inauguration ceremony on Friday 22nd October 2010. National Geographic channel in the United States will be showing a documentary on the build up and preparation for the first flight of VSS Enterprise on Monday, 18 October at 10.00pm ET/PT.
George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic who was also present at the historic flight, added "To see the world's first manned commercial spaceship landing on a runway is a sight I always dreamed I would behold. Now, our challenge going forward will be to complete our experimental program, obtain our FAA licence and safely bring the system into service at Spaceport America, New Mexico."
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Once flights become more affordable and these flight companies take you to the moon, the moon will be trashed and it will just become another earth... :( same goes for the other planets.
igothacked112 2 weeks ago
@raphy1123 No, not this I mean NASA
9753241860hb 2 months ago
@9753241860hb this is the private sector, not the government...
raphy1123 2 months ago
I've seen you....
godschandler1979 3 months ago
that was stable and lame.
astropeachexperience 3 months ago
@colm1234gt A U2 spy plane can only reach 70,000 feet, virgin galactic goes to 400,000ft, plus you get weightlessness, and you dont in a plane, plus your not strapped in your seat in virgin galactic, so you can float around.
Perhaps you should do some research before opening your mouth, troll!
AwsomeAthiest 3 months ago
Nice flight... but i didnt see that plane going to the moon or anything paying 100,000 $ for a quik vieuw of space .... naaa let me see UR anus first then i pay ROFL
030terror 3 months ago
@9753241860hb As greenseaships states; the future of American spaceflight is in the private industry, with the government only giving minor grants and challenges - that way there's more competitiveness which will lead to better and better products, while costing the government relatively little - it'll be just like the Soviet vs US space race, except with no war.
xero993 3 months ago
@greenseaships America should pay off its debt before considering space travel
9753241860hb 4 months ago
@colm1234gt What are you talking about?
A Mig 25 can't break through the Earth's Atmosphere, not even to mention the fact it's not designed to go into space. Going high enough to see the curvature of the Earth and actually going into space are two different things. You'd have to be pretty stupid to not understand the difference.
leadbelly123 5 months ago