Virgin Galactic had to scale back what it hoped would be its first free-flying test of VSS Unity, its second SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, due to unacceptably high crosswinds.
Instead of releasing Unity for a gliding descent today, Virgin Galactic’s test pilots kept the winged craft firmly attached to its White Knight Two carrier airplane from takeoff to landing at Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
In a series of tweets, the company kept its followers updated on the status of the flight, and the winds.
Images: VSS Unity and mothership VMS Eve shortly after takeoff this morning. Stay tuned for updates on today's test flight #SpaceShipTwo pic.twitter.com/OIqLhfUOiR
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) November 1, 2016
Mission control reports all is going smoothly with the vehicles. Still monitoring the winds closely #SpaceShipTwo
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) November 1, 2016
We were ready to glide today, but Mother Nature had other ideas. Heading home. Still getting useful data. We’ll try again soon #SpaceShipTwo
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) November 1, 2016
Crosswinds were high & gusty here in Mojave–which scrubbed the glide portion of today's flight. Still, valuable data gathered #SpaceShipTwo
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) November 1, 2016
VSS Unity has landed! Vehicles and crew are back safe and sound after a successful test flight. We'll try again for glide soon #SpaceShipTwo
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) November 1, 2016
Today’s test flight ended up following the same profile used for Unity’s first captive-carry flight in September. That test marked the first aerial trial for Virgin Galactic’s rocket plane design since Oct. 31, 2014, when VSS Enterprise, the original SpaceShipTwo, broke apart during a rocket-powered test.
Co-pilot Mike Alsbury was killed in the 2014 accident, and pilot Pete Siebold was blown out of the plane and injured while making a death-defying, parachute-assisted descent. Virgin Galactic changed the plane’s design and the pilots’ training routine to address concerns raised during the accident investigation.
In a blog post, the company said it had a set of objectives to meet during each in a series of glide flights.
“These flights will cumulatively allow us to test and prove the performance of the vehicle in a variety of conditions: both heavy (e.g. simulating the full weight of a load of fuel, oxidizer, and people) and light (with empty tanks) and in between, at a variety of flight path angles and air speeds, and so forth,” Virgin Galactic said.
Once Virgin Galactic accomplishes all its objectives for glide flights, the SpaceShipTwo team will move on to rocket-powered tests, climaxing in a rise to outer-space heights. Then the test pilots will practice “off-nominal” scenarios to make sure the plane can be operated safely even if something goes wrong.
Only after those tests will VSS Unity be cleared to take on passengers for suborbital space trips. Those flights would be run out of Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic says about 700 customers have put down as much as $250,000 for a multi-day experience that includes a flight to space and a minutes-long taste of weightlessness. The time frame for the start of commercial service has not yet been announced, but will depend on how the test program goes.
Meanwhile, Blue Origin – which was founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and has its headquarters in Kent, Wash., south of Seattle – is testing its own suborbital rocket ship that could begin flying passengers as early as 2018. Blue Origin has not yet set a ticket price, and it’s not yet taking reservations.
