Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Reaches Space for 1st Time in Historic Test Flight!

[Valin]

SPACE. com

Mike Wall

Dec. 13 2018

For the first time ever, Virgin Galactic has reached space — by one definition, anyway.

 

Virgin's VSS Unity suborbital spaceliner reached a maximum altitude of 51.4 miles (82.7 kilometers) during a rocket-powered test flight over California's Mojave Desert today (Dec. 13) after firing its hybrid rocket motor for 60 seconds, company representatives said. 

That's above the 50-mile (80 km) boundary that the United States Air Force uses when handing out astronaut wings, but below the more famous "Karman Line" at 62 miles (100 km) up. The Karman Line is perhaps more commonly accepted; for example, it was the target altitude for the Ansari X Prize, which offered $10 million to the first private team to launch a reusable crewed craft to space twice within a two-week span.

(Snip)

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