Commercial Space Ship Stayed Attached To Mother Ship Eve

Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic moved a step closer to their first suborbital passenger flights with VSS Enterprise late last week. Enterprise flew for the first time with a crew of two on board last Thursday.

The spaceship stayed attached to the mother ship for the duration of the 6 hour and 12 minute flight. Two crew members, Peter Siebold and Michael Alsbury, were aboard the spaceship evaluating the vehicle's systems and functions "from end to end" according to the Virgin Galactic blog.

Numerous combined systems were also tested during the flight. Mark Stucky, Peter Kalogiannis, and Brian Maister flew VMS Eve. "Objectives Achieved," the blog said. "Congratulations to the whole team."

It was the 33rd flight for Eve, which made an appearance at AirVenture in 2009.

VSS Enterprise made its first "captive carry" flight back in March. At that time, Virgin Galactic reported that it had already taken around $45 million in deposits for spaceflight reservations from over 330 people wanting to experience space for themselves.

The spaceship was unveiled to the public on December 7th 2009. It is designed to carry six fare-paying passengers on sub-orbital space flights, allowing an out-of-the-seat zero gravity experience and offering astounding views of the planet from the black sky of space.

FMI: www.virgingalactic.com