Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Virgin Galactic Eyes Rocket Powered Flight On Friday

Virgin Galactic, the commercial space tourism venture backed by Sir Richard Branson, is hoping to launch a powered rocket flight as early as Friday, December 11th, as part of its efforts to begin providing its rides to space to the public. Virgin Galactic said that the flight window opens on Friday, pending good weather conditions and technical readiness; the company is hoping to test elements of the customer cabin as well as assessing the upgraded horizontal stabilizers and flight controls during boost. Virgin Galactic's flight also will carry payloads from NASA's Flight Opportunities Program. The flight will be conducted from New Mexico; most of the development efforts for Virgin Galactic have been based in Mojave, California.