Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo reached an altitude of 82.7 kilometers on Thursday, marking the first time it entered space, according to the company. In an earlier test, the spacecraft reached an altitude of 52 kilometers.
“SpaceShipTwo, welcome to space”, reported Virgin Galactic Thursday afternoon. The altitude of 82.7 kilometers is considered space by the company and the US Air Force, but is still below the Kármán line. That is a boundary of 100 kilometers height that is generally seen as the beginning of space.
At 4 p.m. on Thursday, the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California along with the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft VSS Unity. At an altitude of 15 kilometers, the carrier released the spaceship, after which the two pilots accelerated to a speed of mach 2.9 in sixty seconds to reach its final altitude.
At 5:15 p.m., SpaceShipTwo made its landing again on the runway in Mojave. In earlier tests this year, in April, May and July, the spacecraft reached altitudes of 25.7, 34.9 and 52 kilometers in succession. Ultimately, the intention is that Virgin Galactic will transport space tourists with it. They can then temporarily experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the earth. They have to pay a hefty amount for that: tickets will cost $ 250,000.