VSS Unity heads into mesosphere at Mach 2.4

   Virgin Galactic conducted a supersonic test flight       Serving the aerospace industry since 1986                                                                                    VirginGalacric photographs
July 26 of VSS Unity, a rocket-powered piloted                   www.facebook.com/aerotechnews
spaceship that will carry commercial passengers and                                                    Use your smartphone to connect to
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   Following an initial and a subsequent supersonic
test flight earlier this year, this marks the third pow-
ered flight and a key step forward in Virgin Galactic’s
test program.

   After a clean release from carrier aircraft VMS Eve
at 46,500 feet, pilots Dave Mackay and Mike “Sooch”
Masucci lit the spaceship’s rocket motor, before pull-
ing up into a near vertical climb and powering to-
wards the black sky at 2.47 times the speed of sound.

   The planned 42-second rocket burn took pilots and
spaceship through the stratosphere and, at an apogee
of 170,800 feet, into the mesosphere for the first time.

   This region, often referred to by scientists as the
“Ignorosphere”, is an under-studied atmospheric lay-
er because it is above the range of balloon flight. It is
an area researchers hope to explore further in the future.

   “It was a thrill from start to finish,” said Dave
Mackay, chief test pilot, after a safe landing at the
Mojave Air and Space Port. “Unity’s rocket motor
performed magnificently again and Sooch pulled off

                       See VIRGIN GALACTIC, Page 3

August 3, 2018 • Volume 32, Issue 14

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