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Glance.lu
After four captive carry flights attached to its mother ship Eve, SpaceShipTwo was released for the first time yesterday. After being released at 45,000 feet, Scaled Composites test pilot Pete Siebold performed several flight quality tests during the 11 minute flight before touching down on runway 30 at the Mojave Air and Space Port.
In a video released by Virgin Galactic, early morning preparations can be seen followed by in flight footage from the release to touch down.
SpaceShipTwo (aka VSS Enterprise) is noticeably bigger than its predecessor, SpaceShipOne. Designed to carry six passengers on a suborbital trip to space, the fuselage of SpaceShipTwo is identical to that of the fuselages on Eve.
The space craft has a much wider landing gear stance than SpaceShipOne and uses a nose skid similar to Burt Rutan’s first space ship design. It also uses a belly mounted speed brake which can be seen during the landing.
The flight test team at Scaled Composites is expected to complete numerous flight tests within the next 18 months before carrying the first passengers to space. Virgin Galactic is planning on flying regular flights from its Spaceport America in New Mexico beginning some time in 2012.
Video: Virgin Galactic
Authors: Jason Paur
