Virgin Galactic’s spaceship makes first solo test flight

LONDON - Experiencing those few minutes of weightlessness on Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spaceship-Enterprise-would soon become a reality, as the spaceship has made its first solo test flight in California.

The spaceship was carried to an altitude of 45,000ft by an aeroplane and then dropped to glide back to the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Enterprise will soon be taking people prepared to pay 200,000 dollar on short trips above the atmosphere.

Sir Richard Branson, British billionaire behind the project, witnessed the drop test.

“This was one of the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin,” the BBC quoted the entrepreneur as saying.

“For the first time since we seriously began the project in 2004, I watched the world’s first manned commercial spaceship landing on the runway at Mojave Air and Space Port and it was a great moment,” he said.

Virgin Galactic is aiming to become the world’s first commercial space line and has already taken deposits from 370 customers.

The Enterprise ship is based on the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne vehicle, which made history in 2004 by successfully flying to 100km in altitude twice in a two-week period.

The new ship, built by Mojave’s Scaled Composites company, is bigger and will be capable of carrying eight people-two crew and six passengers.

Although Eve and Enterprise have made several test flights together, it was the first time the spaceplane had been released at altitude. (ANI)