14 DAY TRIAL // Accompanied by the Virgin America aircraft “My Other Ride Is a Spaceship,” a private spacecraft developed by Virgin Galactic flew over San Francisco, California on Wednesday, April 6. The flight marked the inauguration of the new Terminal 2 facility.
Located at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the terminal covers more than 640,000-square feet, and is shared jointly by Virgin America and American Airlines.
The former is a sister company to Virgin Galactic, one of the leading developers of private spacecraft. Its SpaceShipTwo design is capable of performing suborbital flights, when launched from underneath its carrier aircraft, the WhiteKnightTwo.
The two flew together above San Francisco yesterday to celebrate the opening of Terminal 2. They were accompanied by a Virgin America Airbus 320 plane, and then all aircraft landed at a SFO runway.
“Virgin America has the most advanced and carbon-efficient commercial fleet in the US and when it touches down today at its new home it will share the runway with the future of commercial aerospace – SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo,” said yesterday George Whitesides, quoted by Space.
“We’re proud that two Virgin-branded companies can link the cutting-edge present to the future of commercial aviation,” added the official, who is the President and CEO of Virgin Galactic.
“It is also fitting that today’s flights are helping to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and aviators,” he went on to say.
“Virgin is known around the world for product innovation that improves the customer experience,” added in a statement Sir Richard Bronson, who is the founder of the Virgin Group.
“I am proud to see Virgin America grow into a new home that allows them to extend that unique Virgin experience from the aircraft to the airport,” Bronson said.
SpaceShipTwo will begin commercial flights as soon as next year, according to the scheduled Virgin Galactic made public. Test flights are currently being conducted out of the Mojave Desert.
The spacecraft is able to carry six passengers and two pilot to altitudes reaching as much as 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the surface of the planet. This means that those on board will experience 3 to 5 minutes of weightlessness.
A ticket on a SpaceShipTwo flight costs around $200,000 at this point, but prices may decrease in the future, as Virgin Galactic starts to operate more and more of these spacecrafts.