Virgin Galactic, a U.S.-based space tourism company, has announced its commercial six-passenger space vehicle has completed its inaugural captive carry flight.
The SpaceShipTwo vehicle, developed for Virgin Galactic by the U.S. company Scaled Composites, made a 2-hour, 54-minute flight on Monday attached to the wing of its carrier aircraft, the WhiteKnightTwo.
"This very first captive carry was a huge success and both the mothership and spaceship looked absolutely stunning against the blue back drop of the Mojave skies," Virgin Galactic said in a statement.
"This is a momentous day for the Scaled and Virgin Teams. The captive carry flight signifies the start of what we believe will be extremely exciting and successful spaceship flight test program," the founder of Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan, said during a ceremony at the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California.
According to Virgin Galactic, the test flight program for the spaceship, dubbed VSS Enterprise, "will continue though 2010 and 2011, progressing from captive carry to independent glide and then powered flight, prior to the start of commercial operations."
Following up to 100 test flights, the first customers are expected to start flying aboard the craft on a regular basis, paying $200,000 for a seat.
A total of 300 people across the world, including at least 11 Russians, have booked tickets for suborbital flights with Virgin Galactic. Another 85,000 people have filed flight applications on the agency's website.
According to designers, a SpaceShipTwo vehicle will take the passengers to an altitude of 110 km (68.3 miles) after being dropped from its carrier at an altitude of about 50,000 feet (16 km).
The 2.5-hour flight will feature a five-minute period of weightlessness, when passengers will be able to release themselves from their seats and float around the cabin.
The Virgin Galactic plans to initially operate a fleet of five of these craft.
Russia is currently the only country that provides space flights for tourists on board its Soyuz spacecraft. Flights blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. The trip, which lasts around a week, costs around $30 million.
Virgin Galactic is the space tourism arm of British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Group.
Abu Dhabi-based Aabar Investments has a 32% stake in the company.
WASHINGTON, March 23 (RIA Novosti)
