A new suborbital flight was successfully completed this Thursday, May 25, with six people on board. This test flight gives the green light to a resumption of tourist flights, after two years grounded for maintenance.
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The flight began with the takeoff of carrier aircraft VMS Eve from Spaceport America in New Mexico. After 72 minutes, theavion spatialavion spatial VSS Unity detached from its carrier then started firing its engine rocketrocket powered hybridhybridi.e. which uses both liquid propellants and solidsolid for burning. The space plane then made a parabola culminating at an altitude of 87.2 kilometers. At this height, passengers were in space according to US regulations setting the limit at 80 kilometers (50 miles), contrary to the internationally recognized limit of space at 100 kilometers altitude (Kàrmàn line) . There vitessevitesse which reached Mach 2.94.
Return of commercial flights
This last test flight follows a first which took place on April 26, without VSS Unity igniting its engine. He had just made a descent and a landing in wild oxwild ox. The flight was conducted by two test pilots, with four Virgin Galactic employees serving as mission specialists. The success of this test flight was essential for the return of commercial flights, scheduled for the end of June. Eight hundred people have already bought a place.
This concludes a long crossing of the desertdesert for Virgin Galactic, without recipe. The last flight suborbitalsuborbital dates back to July 11, 2021, with billionaire Richard Brandson, founder of the company, on board. During the flight, Unity had flown for about 100 seconds outside the FAA (Federal Aviation Agency) authorized area. Virgin Galactic’s policy on the safety of its passengers was questioned by its former director of test flights Mark Stucky. Since then, Virgin Galactic had remained on the ground to make changes to Unity, in particular to satisfy the FAA.
