A private American space company Virgin Galactic conducted another test of the tourist suborbital spacecraft SpaceShipTwo and almost conquered the frontier of space height. The company had previously said that, as the U.S. air force to mean a height of about 80 km. the Spaceplane rose to a height of 82.7 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. About the successful launch, the company announced via Twitter.
In the sky, the spacecraft lifted SpaceShipTwo aircraft carrier WhiteKnightTwo. As with all the previous launch was carried out from the airfield in Mojave desert (state of California).
Lovely shot of takeoff! WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo take to the skies pic.twitter.com/JFcSDVB9jR
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) on 13 December 2018.
Rising to a height of about 14 kilometers, the plane freed the spaceplane, the latter included a rocket engine, and after 42 seconds of operation of the accelerator, passing the stratosphere and entered the mesosphere, reaching a height of nearly 83 km. The company adds that SpaceShipTwo exceeded the speed of sound in 2.9 times.
For flights mesosphere represents a sort of “dead zone” — the air is too thin to support aircraft or balloons (to a height of 50 km the air density is 1000 times less than at sea level), and at the same time too dense for flight of artificial satellites in a low orbit.
SpaceShipTwo Spaceship looking back on Earth 🌎 pic.twitter.com/ynr31mKzzf
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) on 13 December 2018.
After a few minutes of flight in the mesosphere SpaceShipTwo began a gradual decline and eventually landed at the same airport in the Mojave desert.
The owner of the company Virgin Galactic, British billionaire Richard Branson were present at the trial. After the successful launch it is reported that the first tourism flight of SpaceShipTwo with passengers on Board is planned to be implemented by March 2019. Branson also added that it will be one of the passengers on that flight.
The spacecraft SpaceShipTwo developed exclusively for tourist purposes. The cost is approximately a two-hour flight during which passengers will experience weightlessness and see the Earth from a height of 100 km is about $250 thousand the Ship is expected to be able to take on Board two pilots and six space tourists. The company has already sold several hundred tickets to those who want to admire the beauty of the Earth from that height.
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