Flight Testing On New Spacecraft Reaches Milestone

VSS Unity, the sub-orbital spacecraft that Virgin Galactic hopes will one day carry tourists to the fringe of space, reached a major milestone Monday with the successful completion of its first feather flight.

Virgin Galactic posted on its blog that the feather system was tested extensively on the ground before the flight test was conducted.

"Full analysis of the data from today’s flight will, as always, take time; but initial reports from the pilots and from mission control are extremely encouraging," the company said in the post.

VSS Unity was piloted by Mark Stucky and Mike Masucci, with pilots Nicola Pecile and CJ Sturckow as well as flight test engineer Dustin Mosher in WhiteKnightTwo. The test flight was the fourth glide flight (and eight flight overall) of VSS Unity, and the 227th flight of WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve.

"Once data reviews are complete, we will move forward with our testing program—pressing onward with additional glide flights designed to expand our envelope of flight weights and centers of gravity," the company said.

(Images provided by Virgin Galactic and from company YouTube video)

FMI: www.virgingalactic.com