The privately-backed SpaceShipTwo has taken wing again, chalking up its fourth drop test on January 13 after being released from its mothership, WhiteKnightTwo, high above the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is capable of hauling to a suborbital trajectory six passengers and two pilots.
Designed and built by the Mojave, California-based Scaled Composites, the craft is undergoing repeat tests to safeguard its use in commercial space tourism, with the vehicle designed to power tourists out to the edge of space.
Today’s test flight marked the fourth drop test of the SpaceShipTwo from high altitude — released by mothership WhiteKnightTwo — with two onboard pilots gliding the craft onto the runway at the Mojave Air and Space Port.
Sir Richard Branson, the British businessman, is bankrolling the enterprise, establishing Virgin Galactic as a suborbital spaceliner.
Today’s flight of SpaceShipTwo marks the fourth glide test, lasting 11 minutes, 34 seconds. “All objectives achieved,” claimed the Scaled Composites flight log.
The test flights have been conducted since October of last year. Still to come are flights making use of the craft’s novel hybrid motor – an engine needed to provide the oomph to push the vehicle to the suborbital heights.
By Leonard David