Irene Klotz Flight test paves a path toward commercial passenger service.
Irene Klotz
Richard Branson, right, and Virgin Galactic Lead Operations Engineer Colin Bennett aboard VSS Unity as they prepared for a ride to suborbital space on July 11. Credit: Virgin Galactic
Richard Branson is typically not someone at a loss for words, but upon returning from his brief foray into suborbital space—aboard a vehicle largely self-financed—the billionaire entrepreneur was uncharacteristically tongue-tied.
“Nothing could prepare you for the view of Earth from space,” Branson said after his July 11 ride on Virgin Space Ship (VSS) Unity, the first of a planned fleet of passenger suborbital vehicles. “I’m just taking it all in. It’s unreal.”
Branson, founder of the UK-based Virgin Group, has had plenty of time to prepare. He licensed the technology to develop SpaceShipTwo (SS2) in 2004 after watching a prototype fly for the $10 million Ansari X Prize competition.
SpaceShipOne—built by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a joint venture of Scaled Composites and the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen—made three flights with a single pilot aboard, demonstrating for the first time a privately developed, reusable human spacecraft.
Branson hoped he would fly as early as 2007, but upscaling the experimental SpaceShipOne into a two-pilot, six-passenger commercial vehicle proved more challenging than expected. The first SpaceShipTwo-class ship, VSS Enterprise, rolled out in December 2009 but did not make its first powered flight until April 2013.
Enterprise conducted two more powered flights over the next nine months, reaching an altitude of 72,000 ft. Powered flight tests were then suspended while engineers tested a new fuel grain for the ship’s hybrid rocket motor, switching to a polyamide-based plastic in place of the hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene, a form of rubber used for the first series of powered tests. Although that fuel had been used successfully in SpaceShipOne, developers encountered fuel-burn stability and power issues as they tried to scale the hybrid motor up to the size required by the larger SS2.
After being carried to an altitude of approximately 45,000 ft. by a White Knight Two mothership, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is dropped. Pilots ignite the vehicle’s hybrid rocket motor, which fires for 1 min., catapulting the ship beyond the atmosphere to more than 50 mi. above Earth. Passengers can view Earth against the backdrop of space and enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness. Credit: Virgin Galactic
Powered flight tests resumed on Oct. 31, 2014, with Scaled pilots Peter Siebold and Michael Alsbury aboard Enterprise. But seconds after engine ignition, the vehicle broke apart due to the premature unlocking of its rotating tail section, called the feather, killing Alsbury and seriously injuring Siebold.
It took four more years for the next SpaceShipTwo vehicle, VSS Unity, to reach suborbital space and another three years after that for Virgin Galactic to be ready to test the passenger cabin experience with a full crew aboard, which for SS2 will typically be four people. The next-generation SpaceShip III will be able to accommodate six passengers.
Initially, Virgin Galactic President Michael Moses said a practice crew would fly ahead of Branson to test flight choreography and systems. “After our last flight in May, the data came back really great . . . so we were able to say we can basically do those rehearsal items in ground training, and we’re ready to fly Richard now,” Moses tells Aviation Week.
“We always had that as an option, but I don’t like to make promises,” he adds. “Richard loves to take what I say, write it down and then never let me forget I said it, so had I told him he would be flying next, that would be some pressure there.”
Unity returned from its fourth spaceflight in excellent shape, says Moses, though a thorough inspection and data analysis will be conducted prior to moving ahead with up to two more full-cabin flight tests ahead of the start of passenger service. One flight is a charter for the Italian Air Force, which will test researcher-tended payloads.
Branson, who turns 71 on July 18, was joined by mission specialists Beth Moses, Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla and pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci for the July 11 flight, known as Unity-22. More than 500 guests, including SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and 160 members of the media, gathered at Spaceport America near Las Cruces, New Mexico, to watch Unity’s fourth venture into suborbital space.
Unity’s White Knight Two carrier aircraft, piloted by Frederick “C.J.” Sturckow and Kelly Latimer, taxied down the runway at 8:40 a.m. local time (10:40a.m. EDT) then headed north over the New Mexican desert. After reaching the designated drop zone, Unity was released at an altitude of 46,000 ft. The vehicle’s rocket motor ignited, catapulting Unity to Mach 3 and a peak altitude of 282,000 ft. (53.4 mi.)
At apogee, Branson and his crewmates unstrapped from their seats to enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness and the view of Earth set against the backdrop of space. Unity glided to a landing at 9:39 a.m. local time.
“This is a landmark moment for our company and for our founder, who is right now showing that if you have the fortitude to follow your dream, you can make a huge and profound impact on the world,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said during a launch webcast, remotely hosted by TV personality Stephen Colbert.
Unity-22 took place nine days ahead of when Blue Origin’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos is due to fly on his company’s first crewed mission. Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, aviation pioneer Wally Funk—one of 13 women who underwent astronaut training in the 1960s—and the unidentified winner of a charity auction are due to lift off aboard New Shepard for a suborbital spaceflight, known as NS-16, on July 20. The mission follows 15 uncrewed flight tests of the six-passenger, autonomous system, which launches from Blue Origin’s private spaceport in Van Horn, Texas, just 220 mi. away from Virgin Galactic’s New Mexico base.
“Congratulations on the flight,” Bezos wrote on Instagram to Branson after Unity-22’s landing. “Can’t wait to join the club!”
Check out the interactive timeline of Virgin Galactic’s Road To Commercial Human Spaceflight here.
