posted 06-25-2020 07:47 PM               

Successful glide flight on June 25, 2020 puts Virgin Galactic on the path for space flight from New Mexico.

posted 12-12-2020 09:00 AM               

SpaceShipTwo Unity and the crew are on target to attempt our first rocket-powered flight from Spaceport America, New Mexico today. The weather looks good and we're targeting an 08:00am MT take-off. Stay tuned for live updates.

Today's flight expects to fulfill a number of objectives, including testing of the customer cabin and upgraded horizontal stabilizers and flight controls. The flight will also carry scientific experiments as part of the NASA Flight Opportunities Program.

Meet the pilots for today's flight. First up is CJ Sturckow. CJ is set to make his sixth flight to space today. He's previously flown to space from CA with Virgin Galactic and from FL with NASA.

Joining CJ in the cockpit is our Chief Pilot, Dave Mackay. This is set to be Dave's second spaceflight, having become the first Scottish-born astronaut when he flew SpaceShipTwo Unity to space on our last spaceflight.

posted 12-12-2020 09:21 AM               

Engines have started on our mothership VMS Eve and we're taxiing for take-off.

Take off! VMS Eve and SpaceShipTwo Unity have taken to the skies above Spaceport America, New Mexico.

SpaceShipTwo Unity and VMS Eve are now at 20,000 feet and rising smoothly.

Today is flight number 288 for VMS Eve and number 20 for SpaceShipTwo Unity.

VMS Eve is taking SpaceShipTwo Unity to release altitude at which point Unity will be released and the rocket motor ignited. The climb to release will take around 45 minutes.

VMS Eve and SpaceShipTwo Unity are at 40,000ft and rising to release altitude.

L-minus 10 minutes until release of SpaceShipTwo Unity from our mothership VMS Eve. Up until this point, VMS Eve, is truly a mothership. Carrying SpaceShipTwo Unity up to altitude and providing electrical power, cabin pressurization, and temperature control using conditioned air, heated to keep the pilots and FAs comfortable at high altitudes. At L-10 minutes from release, SpaceShipTwo Unity switches to its own battery power for avionics and control systems and performs; electrical checks, feather system checks, and flight control checks.

L-minus 4 minutes until release of SpaceShipTwo Unity from our mothership VMS Eve. At this point, the pilots are ensuring SpaceShipTwo Unity is in its launch configuration. They're also isolating their air supply from VMS Eve, readying the rocket motor system, and awaiting clearance for release from Mission Control.

Mission Control has reported that we are go for release.

posted 12-12-2020 10:23 AM               

From Virgin Galactic (via Twitter):

SpaceShipTwo Unity is headed for home. We will share more information once we have it.

SpaceShipTwo Unity now at 15,000 feet and on its way home to Spaceport America.

Touch down, SpaceShipTwo Unity. Wheel stop, SpaceShipTwo Unity.

Pilots and vehicles back safe and sound. We will update again shortly.

Early update on flight: The ignition sequence for the rocket motor did not complete. Vehicle and crew are in great shape. We have several motors ready at Spaceport America. We will check the vehicle and be back to flight soon.

posted 12-12-2020 05:51 PM               

Today's flight landed beautifully, with pilots, planes, and spaceship safe, secure, and in excellent shape — the foundation of every successful mission! Our flight today did not reach space as we had been planning.

After being released from its mothership, SpaceShipTwo Unity's onboard computer that monitors the rocket motor lost connection. As designed, this triggered a fail-safe scenario that intentionally halted ignition of the rocket motor.

Following this occurrence, our pilots flew back to Spaceport America and landed gracefully as usual.

When I became CEO, I was briefed on the safety engineering of our Spaceflight System, which is purposely designed to enable our pilots to safely glide back at any point.

Seeing firsthand how our pilots brought Unity in for a picture-perfect landing after an off-nominal condition confirmed this approach. I am even more confident that this is the level of safety that consumers will want and will be expecting from us.

As we do with every test flight, we are evaluating all the data, including the root cause assessment of the computer communication loss. We look forward to sharing information on our next flight window in the near future.

posted 01-11-2021 08:43 AM               

In paying tribute to his mother, Richard Branson briefly mentioned the Virgin Mother Ship named after her:

When we started Virgin Galactic, mum was so honoured that we named our mothership, VMS Eve. She will always be my mothership, but she is also the proud grandmother of 11 and great-grandmother of 10, all of whom love her dearly and miss her greatly.

posted 05-22-2021 10:34 AM               

It's a beautiful day for space.

The flight has technical objectives, including testing the upgraded flight control systems in VSS Unity, and verifying the EMI mitigations.

Today's crew:

• VMS Eve: Kelly Latimer and Michael Masucci
  
• VSS Unity: CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay

Today's spaceflight will accomplish a number of test objectives, including carrying technology experiments for NASA's Flight Opportunities Program.

Take off! VMS Eve and VSS Unity have taken to the skies above Spaceport America, New Mexico. VMS Eve is taking VSS Unity to a release altitude of 44,000ft. The climb to release will take approximately 60 minutes.

Release, release, release! VSS Unity has successfully separated from VMS Eve. VSS Unity's rocket motor has been ignited by our pilots CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay.

Rocket motor shutdown. Momentum will keep VSS Unity travelling upwards towards apogee. VSS Unity enters coast phase. Tail-booms raised into "feathered" re-entry position.

VSS Unity, our two pilots and NASA supported experiments are now in space.

VSS Unity is descending back to Earth. The feather has been lowered and VSS Unity is now gliding smoothly back to the runway at Spaceport America.

Touch down, VSS Unity.

VMS Eve has landed safely. Thanks to our pilots Kelly Latimer and Michael Masucci for flying the mothership today and their vital role in helping VSS Unity complete today’s spaceflight.