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Mykola Khizhnyak
British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic this Thursday carried out a test suborbital launch of the crewed VSS Unity rocket plane for the first time in two years. The device was raised 15,240 meters above the Earth’s surface by a special VMS Eve aircraft, after which it continued to climb on its own rocket engine until it reached the mark of 87.2 km.
Image Source: Virgin Galactic
As part of the test launch, two pilots, CJ Sturckow and Michael Masucci, were on board the VSS Unity, as well as a crew of four, Virgin Galactic employees: Beth Moses, Luke Mays ), Jamila Gilbert and Christopher Huie.
The launch took place at approximately 11:15 am ET (6:15 pm Moscow time) from an airstrip in New Mexico. The device returned back at 12:37 local time (19:37 Moscow time). During the flight, the VSS Unity crew experienced weightlessness for several minutes and had the opportunity to admire the Earth and its horizon from space.
Virgin Galactic hopes that this was the last test launch before the start of commercial space tourism activities. The company expects to start tourist launches at the end of June this year. The cost of one passenger seat in a stratospheric plane is $450,000. As stated, hundreds of people have already bought tickets.
However, before doing this, you need to analyze the data from the last test run of VSS Unity. At this stage, the company was already in 2021, when, after a seemingly successful launch with Richard Branson himself aboard, Virgin Galactic was already ready to begin commercial tourist flights. However, the US Federal Aviation Administration, which issues licenses for commercial space launches, had questions after analyzing the telemetry of the test – VSS Unity deviated slightly from the set course. After that, the company suspended launches and began the process of modernizing the rocket plane and the VMS Eve carrier aircraft.
If this time the check does not reveal any problems, then Virgin Galactic will probably be able to proceed with official commercial space tourism activities. The presence of problems can lead to additional delays or even put the future of the company, which continues to lose money, in big question.
2023-05-25 19:27:00
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