Dozens of other test flights will follow the Virgin Galactic “Unity” spacecraft before passengers start paying for their stay on board.
Designed for 6 passengers, the SpaceShipTwo made the first test flight over the Mojave Desert in California on Saturday.
This is the second of a series of commercial spacecraft built for the company of Richard Branson, which sells tickets for the trip for $ 250,000.
The first device, created and tested by Scaled Composites (contractor Northrop Grumman) was destroyed during a fatal test flight on October 31, 2014.
The new ship, named Unity and manufactured by Virgin, previously made four flights attached to the aircraft carrier.
On Saturday, SpaceShipTwo and its base WhiteKnightTwo started at 6:49 am from the air and space port and California in the Mojave Desert, about 200 miles from Los Angeles.
“We still have an exciting year ahead and this is just the beginning,” Branson said to a small group, not afraid of the 28-degree Fahrenheit heat, while watching the launch. “I'm afraid you will often have to watch my face in the news in the coming months,” Branson said in a video taken on the spaceport runway.
With the Virgin Galactic pilots Mark Stuckie and David McKay at the helm, Unity separated from WhiteKnightTwo at a height of just over 50,000 feet. This was announced by the president of Virgin Galactic Mike Moses.
“It was beautiful,” he added in a telephone interview after the flight.
Unity flew at Mach 0.6 for an initial test of the handling characteristics and vibration tests, and then landed on the runway launch site.
“Next time we will increase the speed,” said Moses, adding that a 15-minute flight is an important step in the program.
“There is nothing more beautiful than a free flight when it’s a real plane,” said Moses. “Today we received a glider, but there is every chance that it will soon become a spaceship.”
