Virgin Galactic to start final test flight missions before sending Branson and paying tourists into space

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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Virgin Galactic to start final test flight missions before sending Branson and paying tourists into space

16 years after its founding, space tourism company Virgin Galactic could soon be ready to take passengers on commercial suborbital flights.

According to a report from CNBC, the company has filed documents with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to begin the final leg of test flights of its SpaceShipTwo shuttle spacecraft.

It plans to launch the VSS Unity carrying two pilots from its Spaceport America operating base in New Mexico within a window starting on 22 October.
 
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I don't know hey. I'll try anything once but I'm not stupid. Have been following them since the get go and the amount of input needed to keep that thing stable is worrying. Lets see.
 
Binary_Bark

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phys.org

Virgin Galactic rocket ship ascends from New Mexico

Virgin Galactic on Saturday made its first rocket-powered flight from New Mexico to the fringe of space in a manned shuttle, as the company forges toward offering tourist flights to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere.
phys.org phys.org

newatlas.com

Virgin Galactic reaches space from Spaceport America for the first time

Virgin Galactic has put a recent setback behind it to reach space for only the third time in its history, and the first time since relocating to its new Spaceport America base in New Mexico last year. The company's successful test flight over the weekend marked another step forward in its plans to…
newatlas.com newatlas.com
 
Jet-Fighter7700

Jet-Fighter7700

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right now it looks rickety and primitive,
but cast your minds back to the 1903 Wright flyer, wasn't that rickety and unstable?
but yet people queued round the block to get on that.

what about the early barnstormers? or the first commercial "airplane" routes,
what about Lindberg crossing the Atlantic.

all of those started out "primitive and unstable" but look where we are today.

pre-covid you could get on a plane and in 8 hours be in NYC.

with Concorde, 3 hours, fast enough to see the sun rise twice.

give it time, soon enough many more "suborbital" and "spaceflight participant" flights will become available,
and the prices will drop, and the technology will become cheaper and more reliable and better.

and soon even you with your fists of Ham and Abs of Jello will get to see how thin the atmosphere actually is.
 
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Gordon_R said:
That's an old story, months before the latest test flight. You are trolling...
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Early days yes and of course it will mature. But it does seem to be on the ragged edge of controlled flight. Its amazing what GoPro image stabilization can do to video footage. All I'm saying is if I had the money this would not be my preferred vehicle of choice to take me to edge of space.
 
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