On Dec. 13, which marked its fourth powered flight, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane Unity rocketed at Mach 2.9 to an altitude of over 51 mi. above Southern California. Hailed as the first crewed flight to launch from U.S. soil since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, the flight went higher and faster than any previous Virgin test mission and sets the scene for the long-anticipated beginning of commercial space flights in 2019.
On Dec. 13, which marked its fourth powered flight, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane Unity rocketed at Mach 2.9 to an altitude of over 51 mi. above Southern California. Hailed as the first crewed flight to launch from U.S. soil since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, the flight went higher and faster than any previous Virgin test mission and sets the scene for the long-anticipated beginning of commercial space flights in 2019.