Tomorrow’s flight will be the first for Unity since it reached an altitude of 82.7 kilometers, for sixty seconds, before beginning its gliding descent, marking the first time the ship reached the edge of space. That flight was also the first crewed spaceflight to launch from U.S. soil since NASA grounded its space shuttle fleet in 2011.
In a press release today, Virgin Galactic says the rocket motor from that flight is now on show at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and the two space pilots, Mark “Forger” Stucky and Frederick “CJ” Sturckow, are now proudly wearing their FAA Commercial Astronaut Wings.
The window for our 5th powered test flight opens tomorrow. @RichardBranson and our Chief Pilot, Dave Mackay give some background on this next phase of our flight test program. pic.twitter.com/qRpkW3PtIp
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) February 19, 2019
On the December flight, the Unity carried some research payloads from NASA, and the flight tomorrow will also be carrying research payloads from the agency, except the payload, will be heavier then it was in December. Actually, it will be close to the weight expected during commercial operations.
During commercial operations, we can expect to see as many as six passengers and some additional payload on the brief trips to sub-orbital space, reports Space.com. Tomorrow’s flight will also give the company some time to do some additional testing.
“We are now at the stage where we can confirm some of the aspects of the customer cabin, and this will be a continuing theme as we enter this final stage of flight test,” Virgin Galactic representatives said in a statement about tomorrow’s test flight.
One of the things being carefully scrutinized tomorrow will be the spacecraft’s “feather” configuration, where it folds its twin tail booms during atmospheric reentry. “We’ll be looking at how it handles in the feather; how easy it is to control in the feather,” David Mackay, Virgin Galactic chief pilot said, reports Space News.
Virgin Galactic did not release any other details about tomorrow’s flight, except to say it is “expanding the envelope to gather new and vital data essential to future tests and operations, including vehicle center of gravity.”
The custom-built plane WhiteKnightTwo carries the VSS Unity aloft, dropping the spaceliner at an altitude of about 50,000 feet (15,000 meters). At that point, SpaceShipTwo’s onboard rocket motor fires up, powering the vehicle to space.
