The NTSB’s Acting Chairman Christopher Hart holds a news conference Saturday evening to discuss the start of the investigation into the loss of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane over the Mojave Desert.
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Virgin Galactic accomplishes milestone test flight to the edge of space
With two veteran test pilots at the controls, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane climbed to the edge of space for the first time Thursday in a major achievement for Richard Branson’s long-sought ambition to begin regular commercial hops with space tourists, and the first piloted flight by a U.S. vehicle above an altitude of 50 miles since the last space shuttle mission in 2011.
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Virgin Galactic in transition one year after fatal accident
Last year’s fatal crash of Virgin Galactic’s suborbital rocket plane has delayed the start of the company’s commercial operations at least a year, prompting a change in mindset from a “period of euphoria to a period of real, measurable, but tough progress” as the enterprise backed by Richard Branson enters the second decade since its founding.