Good news for those hoping to travel into space. The first manned test flight of Virgin Galactic’s rocket ship, named SpaceShipTwo, was successfully completed at the Mojave Air and Space Port.
The rocket was dropped from a carrier aircraft at 50,000 feet (15,240 metres) where it made an unpowered glide for more than 10 minutes before landing on the desert runway.
Instead of a rocket launch, the carrier craft, resembling a catamaran due to its two large fuselages, will fly SpaceShipTwo under its wing to 50,000 feet, where the spaceship will separate and blast off, climbing to the edge of space, or about 60 miles (97 kilometres) above the Earth’s surface.
At that altitude, passengers will experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth, all for a price of $200,000 U.S.
Founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic hopes to make its first passenger flight sometime in the next year, and has already booked 370 reservations.