VSS Unity glides home after release from WhiteKnight Two. The SpaceShip Two VSS Unity has successfully completed maiden glide test fro...
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| VSS Unity glides home after release from WhiteKnight Two. |
The SpaceShip Two VSS Unity has successfully completed maiden glide test from Virgin Galactic's space port in Mojave on Saturday.
The VSS Unity glided back on its own to the base after it was carried aloft and released by the mother ship WhiteKnight Two from a pre-determined altitude.
The first glide flight focused on testing the fundamental performance and handling qualities. The weight of the craft was kept low and a speed limit of Mach 0.6 was imposed on pilots Stucky and Mackay.
The glide test data gathered will be analyzed for clearing to go faster on subsequent tests.
This test will be the first of a sequence of glide test flights. These flights will cumulatively allow 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 airspeeds, and so forth.
Today, VSS Unity flew free for the first time. Here's a glimpse into our successful test flight this morning #SpaceShipTwo pic.twitter.com/m05UGYy7nq— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) December 3, 2016
The first prototype of the SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise was lost in a fatal accident in October 2014. The space plane broke apart just after its "feathering" re-entry system deployed prematurely during the boost phase killing one pilot and injuring the other.
Virgin plans to usher space tourism with the SpaceShip Two program, which can carry 6 passengers to a height of 100 km, from where the astronaut badge is earned.
It is designed to be released from the WhiteKnight Two at an altitude of 15,000 m, after which the onboard rocket engines are fired to take the SS2 to a suborbital height.
After some minutes in the space, the SS2 then glides back unpowered to the base.
