WhiteKnightTwo – Spaceflight Now

Virgin Galactic pilots land safely after aborting suborbital flight

December 12, 2020 Stephen Clark

Two pilots aboard Virgin Galactic’s commercial SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocketplane safely landed back in New Mexico Saturday after a “computer communications loss” triggered an abort of the craft’s engine ignition sequence.

Virgin Galactic to move remaining SpaceShipTwo test flights to New Mexico

May 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

Virgin Galactic will conduct the remaining test flights for the company’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket plane from southern New Mexico after moving staff and equipment from California over the next few months, officials announced Friday.

Virgin Galactic stages second piloted spaceflight

February 22, 2019 William Harwood

Two test pilots and their instructor flew Virgin Galactic’s winged spaceplane out of the discernible atmosphere Friday for the second time in nine weeks, a successful sub-orbital flight that moves Richard Branson’s company one step closer to its goal of launching paying passengers and payloads on brief forays into the weightlessness of space.

Video: SpaceShipTwo rocket plane soars on supersonic test flight

April 6, 2018 Stephen Clark

Virgin Galactic’s commercial SpaceShipTwo rocket plane made its highest and fastest flight to date Thursday, moving the company’s space tourism ambitions closer to reality more than three years after a fatal accident suspended powered test flights.

Photos: VSS Unity’s first powered test flight

April 6, 2018 Stephen Clark

These images captured by photographer Gene Blevins show Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo space plane making its first rocket-powered test flight Thursday over California’s Mojave Desert, then gliding back to a runway landing.

Virgin Galactic completes first rocket-powered test flight since 2014

April 5, 2018 Stephen Clark

Virgin Galactic’s second piloted suborbital spaceship made its first rocket-powered test flight Thursday, three-and-a-half years after the loss of an earlier model in an accident that killed one test pilot and injured another.

Virgin Galactic’s second spaceship aces first glide flight

December 5, 2016 Stephen Clark

Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo rocket plane glided to a runway landing after dropping from its carrier aircraft over California’s Mojave Desert on Saturday.

Virgin Galactic in transition one year after fatal accident

November 2, 2015 Stephen Clark

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.