SpaceShipTwo makes second supersonic test flight

By The Associated Press

11 years ago

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is shown under rocket power over Mojave, California, April 29, 2013. Virgin Galactic has reported an unspecified problem during a test flight of its SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket. The company tweeted Friday, Oct. 31, 2014, morning that SpaceShipTwo was flying under rocket power and then tweeted that it had “experienced an in-flight anomaly.” (AP Photo/Virgin Galactic, Mark Greenberg, File)

Matt York/The Associated Press The Virgin Galactic jet-powered carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo is seen in front of the Spaceport America hangar in Upham, N.M.

Mark Greenberg/The Associated Press Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo fires its rockets over Mojave, Calif. in April.

MOJAVE, Calif. — Virgin Galactic says it successfully conducted a second rocket-powered, supersonic test flight of the passenger spaceship it is developing.

The craft dubbed SpaceShipTwo reached an altitude of 69,000 feet over California’s Mojave Desert early Thursday after it was dropped from a carrier aircraft and its rocket was ignited for a 20-second burn.

Two pilots and a flight test engineer were aboard as the craft reached a maximum speed of Mach 1.43, then glided to a landing at Mojave Air and Space Port.

Both the altitude and speed exceeded marks set during the first rocket-powered flight last April.

Virgin Galactic plans to take paying passengers on suborbital flights that briefly enter space. The commercial spaceline is owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s aabar Investments PJS.