Virgin Spacecraft’s Test Flight A Complete Success

March 24th, 2010 - 8:46 pm ICT by GD  

By Ranjan Bhaduri
Virgin SpacecraftCalifornia, Mar 24, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Richard Branson, the British billionaire’s dream of traveling into space is not far from being implemented. The first commercial spacecraft of the world took its maiden flight with success over the Mojave Desert of California. Virgin Galactic, his company said on Monday that VSS Enterprise succeeded in its test flight. The developer of the spacecraft termed it as a momentous day. During the first flight VSS Enterprise stayed fixed to a carrier aircraft and the duration of the maiden flight was close to three hours. The flight reached a height of 45,000 feet, as the sources have revealed.

The flight will be tested again shortly and it will eventually be taken to an altitude of 60,000 feet and will use rockets to propel it into space. The test flight will be continued for the next year, as it has been estimated. Richard Branson is quite elated at the success of the maiden flight of VSS Enterprise. He said that when the spacecraft was made it was a milestone but seeing it fly was a great experience for him. With the debut flight of the space craft US engineering reached new height, as he commented.

Virgin Galactic has plans to start the commercial operations by 2012. It wants to make one flight per week with a maximum of 6 passengers on board. A lot of people are willing to fly to space as it seems from the applications. The carrier plane named White Knight Two looks like a flying catamaran. The passengers who will travel in the spacecraft two years later will feel weightlessness, like the astronauts do.

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