TORONTO – It’s another small step for commercial space travel.
On Thursday, Virgin Galactic conducted another successful flight of its winged spaceship, bringing the company one step closer to making space travel possible for ordinary people.
Of course, “ordinary” people need to raise US$250,000 for a ticket first.
Read more: Virgin Galactic moves closer to space tourism…for a price
The company’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) became the highest commercial winged vehicle in history on Thursday, as it soared to an altitude of 1.7 km, breaking the sound barrier at Mach 1.43 (1,751 km/h). It also tested the spaceship’s re-entry mechanism called “feathering” which allows the ship to slowly reduce its speed.
This test was the second rocket-powered, supersonic flight for SS2.
SS2 is carried on the back of a plane, WhiteKnight2 which releases it at an altitude of 1.1 km. From there, two rockets are burned for about 20 seconds as SS2 soars into the upper atmosphere.
Virgin Galactic is owned by Sir Richard Branson and Aabar Investments PJS. It aims to be the world’s first commercial airline, launching into service in 2014.
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