SpaceShip Two Completes Another Test Flight

A few days ago, Virgin Galactic successfully completed another test flight. The test flight happened last Friday and saw the craft reach its highest altitude yet.

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You might think the pilot behind the controls would have looked out the window for a bit and enjoyed the view at 71,000 feet. Pilot David Mackay said he didn’t get to look out the window because he was too busy checking the thruster system that will be used to control the craft in space.

SpaceShip Two will eventually fly to an altitude of 62 miles above the surface of the Earth, which is the official start of outer space. Passengers aboard the spacecraft will pay $250,000 each to make the trip into space.

[via NBC News]

Virgin SpaceShip Two Achieves New Height Record

Virgin SpaceShip Two Achieves New Height RecordVirgin’s SpaceShip Two has broken its fair share of records in the past, but this does not mean that the spacecraft is unable to shatter even more records right here, right now. No sir, the Virgin SpaceShip Two reusable space vehicle has managed to touch new heights today, where the craft was blasted nearly 13.5 miles into the air where it touched a speed of Mach 1.4, now how about that.

The Virgin SpaceShip Two took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port at approximately 7:22 a.m. PST as it was strapped to the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, where the latter brought the former to approximately 46,000 feet. Virgin Galactic Pilot Mike Masucci and Scaled Test Pilot Mike Alsbury were at the controls, and this particular test leads the SpaceShip Two one step closer to its ultimate goal as Sir Richard Branson put it succinctly, “’2014 will be the year we will finally put our beautiful spaceship in her natural environment of space. Today, we had our own Chief Pilot flying another flawless supersonic flight and proving the various systems required to take us safely to space, as well as providing the very best experience while we’re up there.”

When WhiteKnightTwo dropped the plane, the SpaceShip Two then relied on its own rocket motor in order roar to 71,000 feet high, setting a new record along the way.

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  • Virgin SpaceShip Two Achieves New Height Record original content from Ubergizmo.