In A Free Flight From Over 45,000 Feet, SpaceShipTwo
Successfully Glides To A Landing At Mojave Air And Space
Port.
In a flight that moved the world a big step closer to commercial
sub-orbital space tourism, Virgin Galactic successfully completed
the first piloted free flight of SpaceShipTwo, named the VSS
Enterprise. The spaceship was released from its mothership at an
altitude of 45,000 ft Sunday morning and glided to a landing at
Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
Photo Courtesy Virgin Galactic
During its first flight the spaceship was piloted by Pete
Siebold, assisted by Mike Alsbury as co-pilot. The two main goals
of the flight were to carry out a clean release of the spaceship
from its mothership and for the pilots to free fly and glide back
and land at Mojave Air and Space Port.
Other detailed objectives of the flight were successfully
completed, including; verification that all systems worked prior
and following the clean release of Enterprise; initial evaluation
of handling and stall characteristics; qualitative evaluation of
stability and control of SS2 against predictions from design and
simulation work; verification of performance by evaluating the
lift-to-drag ratio of the spaceship during glide flight; practice a
landing approach at altitude and finally descend and land.
Preparations for the milestone flight were extensive. The
WhiteKnightTwo mothership (Eve) flew 40 times including 4 captive
carry flights of spaceship and mothership mated together. The most
recent captive carry was on Sept 30th. The most recent solo flight
was on October 5th and demonstrated that all the systems required
for a free flight by the VSS Enterprise were functioning correctly
without any safety issues. Commenting on the successful flight
Scaled Composites pilot, Pete Siebold, said “The VSS
Enterprise was a real joy to fly, especially when one considers the
fact that the vehicle has been designed not only to be a Mach 3.5
spaceship capable of going into space but also one of the worlds
highest altitude gliders.”
Photo Courtesy Virgin Galactic
Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, who was present
during the first successful flight, added “This was one of
the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin. For the
first time since we seriously began the project in 2004, I watched
the world’s first manned commercial spaceship landing on the
runway at Mojave Air and Spaceport and it was a great moment. Now,
the sky is no longer the limit and we will begin the process of
pushing beyond to the final frontier of space itself over the next
year.”
Virgin Galactic is now well on the way to becoming the
world’s first commercial space line with 370 customer
deposits totalling $50 million. Future commercial operations will
be at Spaceport America in New Mexico where final preparations are
taking place for a finished runway inauguration ceremony on October
22. National Geographic channel in the United States will be
showing a documentary on the build up and preparation for the first
flight of VSS Enterprise on Monday, October 18 at 2200 ET/PT.
George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic who was also present
at the historic flight, added “To see the world’s first
manned commercial spaceship landing on a runway is a sight I always
dreamed I would behold. Now, our challenge going forward will be to
complete our experimental program, obtain our FAA licence and
safely bring the system into service at Space Port America, New
Mexico.”
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation was quick to congratulate
Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic, and the SpaceShipTwo team for
successfully conducting today's first-ever glide flight of the
SpaceShipTwo suborbital spacecraft.
Photo Courtesy Virgin Galactic
"This is a critical milestone in Virgin Galactic's test program
and a great day for the commercial spaceflight industry," said John
Gedmark, Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight
Federation. "At the end of the day, getting hardware off the ground
is what it's really all about. Today's SpaceShipTwo test
flight marks another key milestone towards opening the space
frontier for private individuals, researchers, and explorers.
Congratulations to the entire SpaceShipTwo team."
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