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Virgin Galactic Readies for New Supersonic Flight with NASA Payloads On Board

Richard Branson’s dream of becoming the world’s first tourist to fly to space is inching closer to becoming a fact. Following last December’s first exit into space, Virgin Galactic is now getting ready to fly the VSS Unity once again.
Virgin Galactic readies for new test flight 1 photo
Photo: Virgin Galactic
The company says that despite reaching a major milestone in December 2018, there’s still a lot of testing to be done before people other than the pilots can get on board.

Virgin says the launch window for this next test opens on Wednesday, February 20, but it doesn’t say when exactly the launch will take place, nor what height it targets this time.

This fifth powered flight will be heavier than the previous ones, close to a full commercial weight, as the Unity will be carrying NASA Flight Opportunity program research payloads.

“As always, there are no guarantees that everything will go to plan or work perfectly and the team’s overriding priority is always to bring crew and spaceship home safely,” the company said in a statement.

“Whether we complete all our objectives during the next flight or not, we remain committed to completing the final stages of flight test as quickly, but more importantly as safely, as possible.”


The Unity will be fitted with a new engine for the task, as the one deployed on the December flight is on display at the Future of Spaceflight gallery at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Called Case-Throat-Nozzle (CTN) assembly, the rocket engine has a weight of 3,000 pounds and generates 320 kN of thrust, along with a burn duration of 60 seconds.

VSS Unity is the second ship created by Virgin Galactic. The first one, called VSS Enterprise, crashed in 2014 as a result of pilot error, killing the man behind the stick and seriously injuring the copilot.

Virgin Galactic will use the Unity to fly private citizens into space, in exchange for $200,000 per trip. The amount includes pre-flight medical checks and pre-flight preparation.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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