Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip2, dropped from its « mothership WhiteKnight2 » over the Mojave, California area before igniting its hybrid engine
Photo:(
AFP
)
Virgin Galactic was founded by British billionaire Richard Branson and hopes to begin regular commercial suborbital flights in early 2022, with plans for 400 trips a year.
The LauncherOne rocket from space tourism company Virgin GalacticOrbit brought in seven satellites orbit after being thrown in mid-air from the underside of a modified Boeing 747 nicknamed Cosmic Girl.
The move represents an ideal opportunity for the company to not only showcase its ambitions, but also wealthy tourists To send pleasure rides worth $ 200,000 or more, but also to advance science.
Previously, the Federal Aviation Administration approved the first commercial license for Virgin Galactic to take consumers into space.
Virgin Galactic was founded by British billionaire Richard Branson and hopes to wed early 2022 t to be able to start regular commercial suborbital flights, with planned plans for 400 trips per year.
The flights are a far cry from the classic rocket experience, in which a carrier aircraft takes off from a runway and the spacecraft drops off once in the air its engines ignite.
The company is facing tough competition in the private space exploration sector from Blue Origin from Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and SpaceX from Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk.
Virgin Galactic has completed its first manned spaceflight from its new home port in New Mexico last month in May when its six-passenger SpaceShipTwo landed safely on a runway with its two pilots.
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