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28 March 2024

Virgin ‘spaceship’ makes first free flight

VSS Enterprise made its first manned free flight on Monday, gliding from 45,000 feet to a textbook landing at Mojave Air and Space Port. (SUPPLIED)

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By Staff

Sir Richard Branson's VSS Enterprise spaceship made its first manned free flight on Monday, gliding from 45,000 feet to a textbook landing at Mojave Air and Space Port.

Piloted by Pete Siebold, with Mike Alsbury as co-pilot, the ship is on target to become the world's first manned commercial space vehicle.

“This was one of the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin. 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,” said Sir Richard.

“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.”

“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,” said Siebold.

Virgin Galactic tickets can be booked as soon as you like; Branson’s people have been taking reservations for years already. Tickets for a jaunt on the Enterprise will cost $200,000, with commercial flights starting in about 18 months’ time.

Virgin Galactic has already pocketed $50 million in customer deposits from 370 people. In future, it will fly from Spaceport America in New Mexico, where the runway is nearing completion, with an inauguration ceremony scheduled for October 22.

Following release from the specialist high-altitude four-engined jet VMS (Virgin Mother Ship) Eve, the VSS (Virgin Space Ship) Enterprise made an unpowered gliding descent to land at the Mojave ‘spaceport’ in New Mexico, the planned base of operations for Virgin Galactic.

Siebold and Alsbury carried out a mock landing approach at height before doing it for real on the Mojave runway.

During commercial operations, a VSS would instead fire up its tyre-rubber-and-laughing-gas powered rocket to zoom briefly out of the atmosphere. Even with a helping hand from the VMS carrier, a VSS lacks the power to reach full orbital velocity and so remain in space. Thus, once the rocket has burned out the little ship will plunge back to Earth for a glide landing at Mojave, as performed on Monday.

“Our challenge going forward will be to complete our experimental programme, obtain our FAA licence and safely bring the system into service,” said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides.