The experiment was conducted to ensure the spaceplane could be safety guided onto a runway without incident, with Land Rover still serving as Virgin Galactic’s automotive partner.
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Virgin Galactic says it has received an operating licence for its space tourism rocket from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The unprecedented license covers all operations of Virgin Galactic’s six-passenger, two-pilot SpaceShipTwo vehicle, including commercial passenger service, which according to FAA spokesman Hank Price is contingent on “certain terms and conditions” being met first. “Verification must include flight testing, and the results must be provided to the FAA prior to conducting a mission with a space flight participant on board”, the FAA wrote in an email. Once final safety tests are completed, space enthusiasts will get just that as they are rocketed some 62 miles above Earth.
Once in the lower thermosphere, the SpaceShipTwo is created to linger in space for a few minutes for tourists to experience weightlessness before shifting the vehicles wings positions to take the crew back to Earth.
So far, about 700 people have put down deposits or paid to fly on SpaceShipTwo.
In October 2014, Virgin Galactic’s original SpaceShipTwo vehicle broke apart during a test flight that killed the co-pilot and seriously injured the pilot. Virgin Galactic’s sister company, The Spaceship Company, was about 65 percent finished with the second ship at the time of the accident.
The license authorizes Virgin Galactic to conduct launches of SpaceShipTwo from Mojave Air and Spaceport in California, where the company is conducting its test program.
“The granting of our operator license is an important milestone for Virgin Galactic”, said Mike Moses, Virgin Galactic’s senior vice president of operations, said in a statement.
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It’s a significant win for Branson, who has spent more than a decade working on his dream of launching commercial space flights.
