Zee Media Bureau/Salome Phelamei
Mojave, California: Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) has released a new footage following its successful second powered test flight last week.
The video features a combination of footage from the ground, tail, and rear and from the perspective of WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) as the spaceship was dropped.
Virgin Galactic’s supersonic spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, built for suborbital tourism was lifted off from its mothership WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft at an altitude of 46,000 ft from the Mojave Air and Space Port, in Mojave, California last week.
The spacecraft then soared to reach 69,000 feet. It then reached supersonic speeds, hitting a maximum speed of Mach 1.43 (43% faster than the speed of sound).
While SpaceShipTwo’s total flight time was about 1 hour and 25 minutes, it wrapped up its trip with a test of the SS2’s feather system, a slowing mechanism designed to smoothly bring the spacecraft back to Earth, which is also a first for a rocket-powered flight.
Virgin Galactic, which is within Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, hopes to begin its commercial space tourism operations by 2014.
Watch the video below
