First manned glide flight of VSS Enterprise completed by Virgin Galactic

Posted by John McHaleMOJAVE, Calif., 11 Oct. 2010. Virgin Galactic, which is developing the a commercial manned space flight system and tourism business, announced the completion the first piloted free flight of SpaceShipTwo, named the VSS Enterprise. The spaceship was released from its mothership at an altitude of 45,000 feet. The two main goals of the flight were to carry out a clean release of the commercial spaceship from its mothership and for the pilots to free fly and glide back and land at Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Other completed objectives of the commercial space flight test flight included: verification that all systems worked prior and following the clean release of Enterprise; initial evaluation of handling and stall characteristics; qualitative evaluation of stability and control of SS2 against predictions from design and simulation work; verification of performance by evaluating the lift-to-drag ratio of the spaceship during glide flight; practice a landing approach at altitude; and descend and land.During its first flight the spaceship was piloted by Pete Siebold, assisted by Mike Alsbury as co-pilot. "The VSS Enterprise was a real joy to fly, especially when one considers the fact that the vehicle has been designed not only to be a Mach 3.5 spaceship capable of going into space but also one of the world's highest altitude gliders," Siebold says."This was one of the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin," says Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group. "For the first time since we seriously began the project in 2004, I watched the world's first manned commercial spaceship landing on the runway at Mojave Air and Space Port and it was a great moment. Now, the sky is no longer the limit and we will begin the process of pushing beyond to the final frontier of space itself over the next year."Virgin Galactic already has 370 customer deposits totalling $50 million. Future commercial operations will be at Spaceport America in New Mexico where final preparations are taking place for a finished runway inauguration ceremony on October 22, 2010. National Geographic channel in the U.S. will be showing a documentary on the build up and preparation for the first flight of VSS Enterprise on Monday, October 18 at 10.00pm Est."Now, our challenge going forward will be to complete our experimental program, obtain our [Federal Aviation Administration] FAA license, and safely bring the system into service at Spaceport America," says George Whitesides, chief executive officer of Virgin Galactic.

First manned glide flight of VSS Enterprise completed by Virgin Galactic

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