14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at Virgin Galactic announce that the private spaceflight company is currently getting ready to conduct a new test flight of its SpaceShipTwo, a vehicle being developed for private round-trips to the edge of space.
SpaceShipTwo fits six paying passengers and two crew members, and is launched from beneath a WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft built by Scaled Composites. A ticket for the orbital joyride currently retails for $250,000, or roughly 185,000 euros, Space reports.
Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said on Sunday, November 3, that the SST is scheduled to perform its third powered spaceflight within 30 days. He added that the company is on track towards commencing commercial spaceflights in 2014, as originally predicted.
Roughly 650 customers have already paid advanced for a seat on the first SST flights to suborbital altitudes.
During its last flight, the sweepable-wing spacecraft fired its engines for about 20 seconds. For normal operations, its engines need to burn for a full minute, so this is the threshold Virgin engineers are currently aiming for.