Virgin Galactic has flown its new quad plane freely for the first time , two years on from the fateful wreck that kill pilot film Michael Alsbury .
The unpowered flight ofVSS Unitytook place on Saturday December 3 in the Mojave Desert , with it gliding through the air after being detach from its “ mothership ” carrier aircraft , WhiteKnightTwo ( or VMS Eve ) . This was the 5th flight for Unity , but the first time it had flown alone . Its first flight , in so - call " confined carry " , was back in September .
The entire flight lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes , with Unity in free flight for 10 minute , piloted by Mark Stucky and Dave Mackay . I descended from an altitude of 15 kilometers ( 9.5 land mile ) where it was released , reaching a maximum velocity of 740 kilometer per time of day ( 460 geographical mile per hour ) , before bring down at the Mojave Air and Space Port .
Ultimately , Richard Branson ’s Virgin Galactic is preparing for powered escape of Unity , when it will use its garden rocket motor to propel itself , before actually guess into suborbital blank space ( beyond an altitude of 100 kilometers ) . The company said there would be up to15 glide test flightsbefore that happened , though , and firm dates have not yet been set .
Of course , the last destination for the eight - seater vehicle ( two buffer , six passengers ) is to start get paying client on unretentive 6 - min hop into space at $ 250,000 a ticket . Currently , more than 600 people have sign up for a ride .
Unity ’s precursor , VSS Enterprise , was destroyed inOctober 2014 . An investigating found the cause was a premature unlocking of the fomite ’s “ feather ” system , where the rump can be affect to aid the fomite re - accede the atmosphere . The fomite right away broke asunder , killing Michael Alsbury . His atomic number 27 - pilot program , Peter Siebold , miraculously hold up .
So it ’s understandable that Virgin Galactic and the fomite ’s developer , Scaled Composites , need to make certain everything is work properly this meter around . That intend , though , it may be years before we see Virgin Galactic begin factual outer space tourism flights .
