Virgin Galactic tests passenger rocket ship, 3 years after fatal accident

Richard Branson's company VirginGalactic conducted a supersonic test flight over the SierraNevada mountains of its SpaceShipTwopassenger rocket ship onThursday, the company said, three years after a fatal accidenton an earlier version of the ship.

Virgin Galactic successfully tests its new VSS Unity spaceship

6 years ago

Duration 0:58

First flight since fatal crash of 2014, saw pilots fly the spacecraft up to 1,963 km/h

At about 8 a.m. local time, the VMS Eve carrier plane tookoff from Mojave, Calif., carrying SpaceShipTwoVSS Unitybefore releasing it 14,000 metres above ground, VirginGalactic said in a statement.

A rocket motor then accelerated Unity to Mach 1.87 during a30-second rocket burn before the ship's two pilots shut it down.The spaceship reached 25,000 metresbefore making asmooth runway landing, the company said.

"Space feels tantalisingly close now," Branson Tweeted afterthe test flight.

Virgin Galactic's original SpaceShipTwo vehicle broke apartduring an October 2014 test flight that killed the co-pilot andseriously injured the pilot, in an accident that was ultimatelyattributed to pilot error. Both were employees of ScaledComposites, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary based in Mojave thatbuilt the vehicle.

The Spaceship Company, a Virgin Galactic sister firm alsoowned by Branson's London-based Virgin Group, built the newSpaceShipTwo VSS Unity, the second in a planned fleet of five,and took over the test-flight program from Scaled.

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In 2016, the space company was granted an operating licenceto fly its passenger ship with the world'sfirst paying spacetourists once final safety tests are completed.

The company has not yet announced a date for the start ofpassenger flights but is selling tickets for a ride aboardSpaceShipTwo at $250,000 US a seat.

Rides will take passengers about 100 kilometresaboveEarth, high enough to experience a few minutes of weightlessnessand see the curvature of Earth set against the blackness ofspace.