(A spacecraft from space tourism company Virgin Galactic reached space on Thursday for the first time in nearly two years, the company founded by billionaire Richard Branson announced.) “We have reached space! “, wrote on Twitter, in capital letters, Virgin Galactic, which did not provide a live video broadcast of the test.
This flight, which is the fifth of the company to cross the frontier of space, was presented as the ultimate test before the start of commercial operations.
Now announced for the end of June, they have been expected for years, and around 800 customers have already purchased their ticket.
Death of a pilot
Virgin Galactic’s space program has suffered years of delays, in particular because of an accident in 2014 which caused the death of a pilot.
Then, after the space flight having transported the Briton Richard Branson himself in July 2021, the company announced a break, dedicated to improving its machine. This lasted much longer than originally planned.
Thursday, the mission named Unity 25 took place from the base of Spaceport America, in the New Mexico desert.
The crew consisted of Virgin Galactic employees.
A huge carrier plane, named VMS EVE, took off from a conventional runway, with two pilots at the controls. Then he dropped the ship, called VSS Unity, which looks like a large private jet, at altitude. On board: four passengers, and again two pilots.
He then turned on his engine until he exceeded 80 kilometers in altitude (the definition of space according to the American army).
The spacecraft then descended while gliding, before landing on the runway, like a conventional airplane.
Float in weightlessness
The proposed trip offers only about ten minutes in space, but passengers can detach and float in zero gravity.
The first commercial flight, dubbed Galactic 01, is to be made with the Italian Air Force.
Between 2005 and 2014, Virgin Galactic had sold some 600 tickets to space, for a price between 200,000 and 250,000 dollars. Then 200 more were sold in recent years, for $450,000 each.
Virgin Galactic competes with billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, which also offers short suborbital flights and has already sent 32 people into space.
But since an accident in September 2022 during an unmanned flight, its rocket has been grounded. Blue Origin promised in March to resume spaceflight “soon”.