14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with Virgin Galactic announced recently that they were closer than ever to obtaining commercial launch licenses from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for their SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle. When the final documents are signed, the spacecraft can resume its powered test flights and then begin ferrying humans to suborbital altitudes.
The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation received an application from Virgin Galactic in August 2013, and it has been reviewing it ever since. On March 6, CEO and President of Virgin Galactic George T. Whitesides announced that the company was in the final phases of obtaining its credentials.
“I think we’re in the final phases of our commercial launch application with the FAA, and that’s going well. We hope to progress that to conclusion soon,” he said. Currently, SpaceShipTwo is being tested under an experimental FAA permit, which allowed the company to perform three powered flights.
The official also announced indirectly that Virgin Galactic may conduct its first suborbital test flight this summer. At this point, one SpaceShipTwo is being outfitted for commercial flights, though Whitesides declined to confirm when the first such flight would take place. A seat on the spacecraft is sold for around $200,000 (€144,000), Space News reports.
SpaceShipTwo is carried high in the atmosphere by the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft. After release, the spacecraft uses its built-in rocket to boost itself to suborbital altitudes, where six passengers and 2 crew members will experience up to 4 minutes of weightlessness. The vehicle then reenters the atmosphere and lands on its own at a spaceport.