Virgin Galactic reaches space a second time

                                                                                                                                                   Virgin Galactic photograph

VSS Unity and WhiteKnightTwo take off from the Mojave Air and Space Port Feb. 22 for Virgin
Galactic’s second space flight.

   In its fifth supersonic rocket powered test          This space flight means Chief Pilot Dave                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Virgin Galactic photograph
flight, Virgin Galactic reached space for the sec-   Mackay and co-pilot Michael “Sooch” Masucci
ond time on Feb. 22, in the skies above Mojave,      become commercial astronauts and the 569th                                                                                Chief Astronaut Trainer Beth Moses experienced zero-G float for the first time as SpaceShipTwo
Calif.                                               and 570th humans in space. Beth Moses, Virgin                                                                             reached apogee.
                                                     Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor, flew as the
   At 8:07 a.m., PST, WhiteKnightTwo, the air-       third crew member in a first, live evaluation of
craft that lifts VSS Unity high enough to fire its   cabin dynamics. She is the 571st person to fly
motor, took off from the Mojave Air and Space        to space and the first woman to fly on board a
Port in Southern California. VSS Unity sepa-         commercial spaceship.
rated from the mother ship about an hour into
the flight.                                             In addition to this element of envelope expan-
                                                     sion, VSS Unity flew higher and faster than ever
   Spaceship VSS Unity reached its highest           before, as its world record-holding hybrid rocket
speed and altitude to date and, for the first time,  motor propelled the spaceship at Mach 3.04 to an
carried a third crew member on board along with      apogee of 295,007 feet.
research payloads from the NASA Flight Oppor-
tunities program.                                                   See VIRGIN GALACTIC, Page 3

March 1, 2019 • Volume 33, Issue 3                   Serving the aerospace industry since 1986                                                                                 Use your smartphone to connect to
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