Author Topic: Virgin Galactic’s rocket plane climbs closer to space  (Read 655 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Spaceflight Now July 27, 2018 Stephen Clark

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, built to eventually carry commercial passengers to the edge of space, accomplished another powered test flight into the rarefied upper atmosphere Thursday with two pilots on-board.

The two-man team in the cockpit helmed the SpaceShipTwo vehicle, dubbed VSS Unity, as it dropped from the belly of a jet-powered carrier aircraft and ignited for a 42-second firing of its rear-mounted rocket motor, burning a mixture of rubber-based solid fuel — called HTPB — and nitrous oxide.

VSS Unity separated from its carrier jet — VMS Eve — at 9:44 a.m. PDT (12:44 p.m. EDT; 1644 GMT) Thursday from an altitude of 46,500 feet (14,200 meters) over California’s Mojave Desert. Moments later, the craft lit its rocket motor as the pilots pulled the vehicle into a near-vertical climb.

After the rocket burned out, VSS Unity coasted to a peak altitude of 170,800 feet (32.3 miles; 52 kilometers), the highest any SpaceShipTwo test flight has reached, and around four times the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner.

Pilots Dave Mackay and Mike “Sooch” Masucci were at the controls of VSS Unity.

“That’s a million-dollar view out the window, Dave,” Masucci said as the vehicle soared at the edge of the atmosphere.

More: https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/07/27/virgin-galactics-rocket-plane-climbs-closer-to-space/

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