Virgin Galactic is to make its first rocket-powered test flights for its commercials passenger spaceship later this year after being granted clearance.
Virgin Galactic is to make its first rocket-powered test flights for its commercials passenger
Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic's spaceship design partner, was granted an experimental permit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – a move that will allow it to proceed with powered flights.
No timetable has been set for the first launches carrying paying customers, expected to take place after the test programme is complete.
More than 500 people including actor Ashton Kutcher have signed up with Virgin Galactic for a chance to experience weightlessness during suborbital flights.
Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites have been glide-testing their six-passenger vehicle SpaceShipTwo, which is air-launched from a twin-fuselage carrier aeroplane.
Work is under way to integrate the rocket motor into SpaceShipTwo, a commercial six-passenger spacecraft owned by Virgin Galactic, for suborbital test flights following the clearance.
SpaceShipTwo manufacturer Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, received the one-year experimental launch permit on May 23 for test flights beyond the atmosphere, FAA spokesman Hank Price said.
The six-passenger, two-pilot spacecraft is based on the prototype SpaceShipOne, also built by Scaled, which clinched the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 for the first privately funded human space flights.
SpaceShipOne made three suborbital hops beyond the atmosphere, each with a solo pilot aboard, ultimately reaching an altitude of nearly 70 miles above Earth. SpaceShipOne is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Richard Branson, whose company Virgin Group jointly owns Virgin Galactic with Aabar Investments PJS, hired SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan to create a fleet of spaceships for commercial use.
Participants will experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curve of Earth set against the black sky of space.
Like SpaceShipOne, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo will be flown into the air beneath a carrier jet and released. Once separated, the spaceship's rocket engine will fire to blast it into the sky. SpaceShipTwo has completed 16 free flight tests.
The FAA permit will enable Scaled, now wholly owned by Northrop Grumman, to move on to rocket-powered flights.
Company President George Whitesides called the permit an “important milestone "that positions the company “a major step closer to bringing our customers to space."
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