The suborbital space plane of Virgin Galactic, VSS Unity, came back from its second successful supersonic flight above the Mojave Desert of California, in the United States on May 29, 2018.
Using its rocket engine for 31 seconds, the aircraft reached a top speed of Mach 1.9 and an altitude of about 35 kilometers. To come back to Earth and land safely, VSS Unity used the peculiar shape of its fuselage, dubbed “feathering system” by Virgin Galactic. The VSS Unity was launched by the carrier “VMS Eve”, developed by Scaled Composites, at an altitude of 15 kilometers.
The flight was attended by Virgin Galactic‘s founder, Richard Branson. “It was great to see our beautiful spaceship back in the air and to share the moment with the talented team who are taking us, step by step, to space” Branson said.” We are getting ever closer to realizing our goals.”
Virgin Galactic have already convinced a few hundred of potential passengers. For the price of $250,000, the lucky few will be able to experience microgravity for a few minutes.
Source – AeroTime News Hub