SpaceShipTwo
SpaceshipTwo Unity flies free in New Mexico airspace for the first time. (Virgin Galactic Photo)

For the first time, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane flew free in the skies over New Mexico’s Spaceport America, its new base of operations.

The SpaceShipTwo plane, known as VSS Unity, has made rocket-powered flights beyond the 50-mile space milestone during tests at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port, but today’s unpowered test flight was the first to be flown from Spaceport America.

“Today’s VSS Unity flight is another exciting milestone for Virgin Galactic’s progress in New Mexico,” Dan Hicks, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, said in a news release. “We are extremely happy and proud of Virgin Galactic, not only for today’s success but also for the exceptional way they have integrated into NM and supported the region and state during this stressful time dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The flight was conducted under a set of operational protocols aimed at ensuring safety amid the coronavirus pandemic, including social distancing and universal mask usage.

Unity was carried to a height of 50,000 feet by its WhiteKnightTwo mothership, VMS Eve, and then released to glide back to the spaceport’s runway. Virgin Galactic said Unity achieved a glide speed of Mach 0.70 and completed all test objectives with pilots Dave Mackay and CJ Sturckow at the controls. Michael Masucci and Kelly Latimer piloted Eve.

Further test flights will clear the way for passengers to start flying suborbital space trips as early as this year. More than 600 customers from 60 countries have paid as much as $250,000 for a reservation, and Virgin Galactic resumed taking deposits for trips in February.

SpaceShipTwo is the successor of SpaceShipOne, which captured the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 with backing from the late Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen.

The air-launch architecture also inspired Allen’s Stratolaunch venture, which a new set of financial backers acquired from Vulcan Inc. last year.

Virgin Galactic’s main competitor in the nascent suborbital space tourism industry is Blue Origin, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ privately held space venture. Blue Origin has said it’s aiming to start flying people later this year from its suborbital spaceport in West Texas, within a few hours’ drive of Virgin Galactic’s New Mexico base of operations. But it’s not yet clear how the pandemic will affect that timeline.

Update for 10:50 a.m. PT May 2: This report has been updated with background on SpaceShipTwo and Blue Origin’s suborbital space program.

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