Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo completes first flight with crew on board

It still has a few more key hurdles to cross, but it looks like Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (a.k.a. the VSS Enterprise) is remaining on track for its first commercial flight sometime next year. The latest milestone is the spacecraft's first flight with a crew on board, which occurred on July 15th at Virgin Galactic's usual base of operations, the Mojave Air and Space Port. As with previous flights, however, SpaceShipTwo remained attached to the VMS Eve "mothership" for the duration of the flight, but it did stay aloft for more than six hours as the crew (including test pilots Peter Siebold, Michael Alsbury) went through a range of tests. Still no word on exactly when SpaceShipTwo will see its first solo flight but, barring any change in plans, that should be the next flight that takes place.

[Soapinmouth Posted Jul 19th 2010 5:59AM]

HEllo world

[tobsmonster2 Posted Jul 19th 2010 6:48AM]

@Soapinmouth
How much? I remember back when technologies were young and the only small device I could touch was part of my anatomy. Before fanboys and lamers made ownership a chore. I had dreams of space flight.

[tadghostal Posted Jul 19th 2010 7:59AM]

@tobsmonster2 Back when you could touch your brain? ! I'll be here all week ;)

[DrScope Posted Jul 19th 2010 10:46AM]

@Soapinmouth Well Hello or not the craft seems to me to... simple?
I would be scared to go up in such a craft, can it make its way down in worst case scenarios? how would it deal with computer situations in space? and why is there no Boeing projects going on for god sake they built the space shuttles for NASA!

On another note it is good to see private sector flying in to space once again!

[Ken J Posted Jul 19th 2010 11:26AM]

@DrScope

K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Stupid

The most reliable systems are the simple ones.

[Juice89 Posted Jul 19th 2010 3:49PM]

Exactly... more is not allways better. The simple stuff usually last longer.

[mayhem121 Posted Jul 19th 2010 6:00AM]

That truely is going to be out of this world

[dtakias Posted Jul 19th 2010 6:03AM]

Has it got built-in WiFi?!

[RincewindWiz Posted Jul 19th 2010 6:16AM]

Burt Rutan does some truly amazing stuff. He's a legend of an engineer.

[Win7GT Posted Jul 19th 2010 6:24AM]

After 50 years every lad will have this things to get up with his girlfriend.

[mocax Posted Jul 19th 2010 6:24AM]

next stop, Virgin Cloud City and them twin-pod cloud cars.... wwaaaaoooooo..... pew pew pew.....

[GGG Posted Jul 19th 2010 6:46AM]

awesome, i will surely try out their services if they ever start taking off from Europe and if the price drops below 2000€

[ZIXTO Posted Jul 19th 2010 8:18AM]

WOW waste of money with lots of people out of work, this project cost over 2billion you know how many family will live with this money

[No Comment Posted Jul 19th 2010 8:36AM]

@ZIXTO

Dude...

The way you get those families back into work is to spend $2bn creating something new. You employ engineers, construction firms, architects, PR people, fuel specialists etc.

Then they take that money home. They spend it on food, furniture, clothing. The shopkeepers then spend that on more stuff for them and their families. Everyone takes a bit of profit along the way as a reward for their labour.

It's called a 'market'.

The alternative, obviously, is to leave the money in a bank earning interest. I guess that would be good for the banks. Maybe you'd be more comfortable with that scenario.

[HeeHaw Posted Jul 19th 2010 11:03AM]

@ZIXTO

Families are living on this money. In fact that's a great way to spend money when you're super wealthy.

[CL114C0777498D Posted Jul 19th 2010 9:39AM]

it needs more 'Virgin' logos on it. logos make it go faster.

[petebob796 Posted Jul 19th 2010 9:58AM]

@CL114C0777498D Needs to be Red too like the normal virgin logo. Red cars go faster surely red spaceships too.

[HeeHaw Posted Jul 19th 2010 11:04AM]

@petebob796 But then it wouldn't really be a virgin anymore, would it.

[Joeyjoejoe Shabadoo Posted Jul 19th 2010 10:33AM]

Comeon lottery

[Mobile Broadband Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:43PM]

Looks good!

[Mobile Broadband Posted Jul 19th 2010 2:45PM]

I'd much rather have this little 'un though! ;p