Virgin Galactic successfully test flight with ‘spaceship’ VSS Unity

Virgin Galactic successfully tested its VSS Unity in a glider flight. As the experiment was successful, the company is getting closer and closer to powered flight. It will probably be carried out next year.

Images were posted on Virgin Galactic’s Twitter account shown of the test flight. In a short video, the spaceship is shown gliding through the sky, after which it successfully lands on Earth. Virgin Galactic thus achieves its second success in testing the VSS Unity: a gliding flight was previously successfully completed.

As the glides are successful, Virgin Galactic is getting closer to the first powered test flights. The company will probably start doing this next year, although a number of extra glides have to be performed first.

Last summer, Virgin Galactic announced it would begin test flights for the VSS Unity. The vehicle is to be the successor to the SpaceShip Two, which crashed more than two years ago. Virgin Galactic had intended to offer its first commercial space flights with this spaceship, but the accident put an end to these plans.