First Crewed Flight of SpaceShipTwo
Department:
Privatizing Spaceflight
Teaser:
"A commercial spaceship owned by Virgin Galactic made its first flight with a crew onboard Thursday."
Source:
SPACE.com Download time: Jul 17 2010 9:14 AM ET
A private suborbital spaceship built for the space tourism firm Virgin Galactic made its first flight with a crew onboard Thursday as it soared over California's Mojave Desert beneath its enormous mothership.
The commercial spaceliner – called VSS Enterprise, one of the company's fleet of SpaceShipTwo spacecraft – did not try to reach space in the test flight. Instead, it stayed firmly attached to its WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve mothership.
The two crewmembers riding onboard VSS Enterprise evaluated all of the spacecraft's systems and functions during the 6-hour, 12-minute flight, Virgin Galactic officials said in a statement. In addition, automated sensors and ground crews conducted thorough vehicle systems tests.…
See SPACE.com for links to further info.
