Last test for Virgin Galactic before suborbital journeys
Two years after its first manned flight, Virgin Galactic attempts its final test flight before starting its commercial space service
New suborbital flight test for Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson's space tourism company, before starting commercial space flights.
Launch is scheduled for May 25 from Spaceport America in New Mexico, but will not be streamed live. The company's Unity 25 mission from Spaceport America, New Mexico comes 22 months after billionaire Branson and other Virgin Galactic employees soared to the edge of space aboard the company's SpaceShipTwo space plane.
The mission marks the company's fifth spaceflight to date and is the first since founder Sir Richard Branson's launch to the edge of space.
It is a pivotal moment in the history of Virgin Galactic, born to offer spaceflight at relatively low cost, which has suffered repeated setbacks and years of delays in the development of its flight system, reports CNBC .
The Federal Aviation Administration of the United States had in fact launched a safety investigation on the flight of 11 July 2021 with Branson himself on board – the mission had ended positively but had recorded an anomaly in the ascent phase of the shuttle – blocking Virgin Galactic flights.
If today's test goes according to plan, Virgin Galactic hopes to fly its first commercial mission at the end of June, a flight in collaboration with our Air Force and National Research Council.
All the details.
LAST TEST FOR VIRGIN GALACTIC
Today's mission, called Unity 25, involves 8 people, 2 of whom are the pilots of the Eve plane that will carry the Unity rocket plane up to an altitude of about 15,000 metres. The double-body transport aircraft, named VSS Eve, will take off from a runway at the New Mexico site carrying the suborbital SpaceShipTwo, named VSS Unity.
The test foresees that the VSS Unity shuttle unhooks from the 'mother' plane Eve at an altitude of 15,000 meters and then reaches an altitude of 80 kilometers (the International Astronautical Federation defines space only beyond the 100 km limit). Then we proceed with the re-entry maneuver and land, similar to the old Space Shuttle and unlike all the other capsules in use today, like a normal plane.
BEFORE SPACE TRAVEL
The test mission, lasting approximately 90 minutes from takeoff to landing the spaceplane after spending three minutes in microgravity, follows the type of travel Virgin Galactic intends to provide to a backlog of around 800 customers. According to Reuters, the price of tickets fluctuates between 250,000 and 450,000 dollars.
OVERCOME DIFFICULTIES (INCLUDING FINANCIAL)
The company, which previously planned to launch commercial service in late 2022, is also working to overcome doubts about its financial viability, Bloomberg recalls. Some investors have sued Virgin Galactic, accusing it of making misleading statements about the readiness and safety of its vehicles. A successful launch could help allay worries about the company's future.
A failure, on the other hand, would raise new questions and mark yet another setback for Branson's space activities, Bloomberg adds. British tycoon Sir Richard Branson's other aerospace business, Virgin Orbit, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 4, in preparation for the sale.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/ultimo-test-per-virgin-galactic-prima-dei-viaggi-suborbitali/ on Thu, 25 May 2023 14:39:12 +0000.