Virgin’s Spaceship Survives Test Flight

After collecting roughly $45 million from aspirational space tourists, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is just in the testing phase. That’s OK. At $200,000 a ticket, you don’t want to skimp on safety. So how much to check a bag?

Reuters:

A suborbital spaceship owned by aspiring space tourism operator Virgin Galactic was airlifted into the skies over California’s Mojave Desert on Monday for its debut test flight.

The sleek, six-passenger ship, called VSS Enterprise, remained attached to its carrier aircraft throughout the two-hour, 54-minute flight.

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Virgin Galactic / Mark Greenberg

The VSS Enterprise is nestled on the underbelly of its carrier airplane here. In Monday’s test, which lasted almost three hours, the suborbital ship remained attached to the carrier.