Mojave, California-based Virgin Galactic announced it will soon unveil the new version of SpaceShipTwo, one of a few commercial space ships currently in development vying to take customers into space. This SpaceShipTwo serves to replace the first version, which tragically crashed in 2014, killing one of the two test pilots.
While the new SpaceShipTwo has some differences from its predecessor, Virgin Galactic said in a statement that it is similar enough that the company will “benefit from incredibly useful data from 55 successful test flights as well as the brutal but important lessons from one tragic flight-test accident.”
Flight testing will initially focus on validating and calibrating the existing data set by running similar tests to those that were previously completed. Testing will start on the ground to ensure that the systems that have been tested separately will continue to operate as expected together. The team will then move on to new test stages.
SpaceShipTwo is launched from a large carrier airplane, WhiteKnightTwo, powered by four jet engines. Once SpaceShipTwo is ready to be mated to WhiteKnightTwo, initial flight tests will confirm proper attachment to the carrier. The first release will occur from 45,000 feet, from where the space ship will glide to the ground. After several glide test flights, the rocket powered flight test will resume. SpaceShipTwo is normally released at about 50,000 feet and it is eventually expected to fly beyond 62 miles above Earth.
It will likely still be years before the first paying customers will climb into SpaceShipTwo or one of its successors. However, that has not stopped people from putting down a significant deposit, $250,000, to get in line to fly into space. “We feel incredibly honored that our earliest paying customers already number more than the total number of humans who have ever been to space,” Virgin Galactic said.
Check out CNN’s report on the latest version of SpaceShipTwo in this video.
