{"id":19299,"date":"2016-08-02T00:27:47","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T16:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/virgin-galactic-receives-faa-license-to-fly-spaceshiptwo-and-its-taxiing-on-runway\/"},"modified":"2016-08-02T00:27:47","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T16:27:47","slug":"virgin-galactic-receives-faa-license-to-fly-spaceshiptwo-and-its-taxiing-on-runway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/virgin-galactic-receives-faa-license-to-fly-spaceshiptwo-and-its-taxiing-on-runway\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Galactic receives FAA license to fly SpaceShipTwo \u2013 and it\u2019s taxiing on runway"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_264773\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-264773\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-264773\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160801-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-630x336.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceShipTwo taxi test\" width=\"630\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160801-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-630x336.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160801-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-768x409.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160801-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-1240x661.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160801-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo.jpg 1663w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-264773\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, known as VSS Unity, is pulled behind a Range Rover Autobiography vehicle during its first taxi test at California\u2019s Mojave Air and Space Port. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Virgin Galactic says it\u2019s&nbsp;received an operator license from the Federal Aviation Administration for flying its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane into outer space with commercial payloads.<\/p>\n<p>The craft, known as VSS Unity, has just begun on-the-ground taxi tests at California\u2019s Mojave Air and Space Port \u2013 and it\u2019s on track&nbsp;to begin flight tests as early as this month.<\/p>\n<p>During today\u2019s first taxi test, a Range Rover SUV pulled Unity down Mojave\u2019s runway to evaluate and calibrate the craft\u2019s navigation and communication\/telemetry systems, Virgin Galactic said.<\/p>\n<p>The initial flight tests will involve carrying Unity into the air while it\u2019s firmly attached to its White Knight Two mother ship. If those captive-carry tests go well, White Knight Two&nbsp;will start releasing Unity for unpowered glide flights, and then for rocket-powered flights.<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Galactic\u2019s operator license, issued on July 29, clears the way for test flights from Mojave and for&nbsp;the transport of scientific and experimental payloads. The company said the license was awarded after \u201cseveral years of in-depth interaction with the FAA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The two-year license specifies that&nbsp;the company won\u2019t be able to take on paying passengers until the launch system\u2019s performance is verified by its test program.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Space Plane Test Flight Scheduled For August\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lq8_owzgp74?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The most recent SpaceShipTwo flight test was in October 2014, when an earlier craft known as VSS Enterprise broke up just after turning on its hybrid rocket engine. Co-pilot Michael Alsbury was killed, and pilot Pete Siebold was injured.<\/p>\n<p>The resulting investigation took months. Investigators cited a number of root causes for the accident, ranging from a miscue in the cockpit, to inadequate safeguards in the equipment, to lapses in training, to poor oversight by the FAA. Based on the findings, Virgin Galactic made changes in the hardware as well as the training regimen for test pilots.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"icon-quotes-left\"><\/span>&nbsp;While we still have much work ahead to fully test this spaceship in flight, I am confident that our world-class team is up to the challenge.<span class=\"icon-quotes-right\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mike Moses, Virgin Galactic\u2019s senior vice president of operations, hailed the granting of the license and today\u2019s start of taxi tests as important milestones. \u201cWhile we still have much work ahead to fully test this spaceship in flight, I am confident that our world-class team is up to the challenge,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Since the 2014 accident, Virgin Galactic has shied away from providing a timetable for commercial operations.<\/p>\n<p>Once the test program is finished, Virgin Galactic aims to shift operations to Spaceport America in New Mexico. About 700 customers, including celebrities such as Justin Bieber and Katy Perry, have paid as much as $250,000 each to ride&nbsp;on Unity to the edge of outer space and back.<\/p>\n<p>The company was founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, who intends to be one of&nbsp;the first passengers to get on board.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the suborbital SpaceShipTwo project, Virgin Galactic is working on a project known as LauncherOne to send satellites into orbit. Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin venture and XCOR Aerospace are working on their own suborbital launch systems for passengers and payloads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, known as VSS Unity, is pulled behind a Range Rover Autobiography vehicle during its first taxi test at California\u2019s Mojave Air and Space Port. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) Virgin Galactic says it\u2019s&nbsp;received an operator license from the Federal Aviation Administration for flying its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane into outer space with commercial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,318,493,1973,492],"class_list":["post-19299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-faa","tag-space-tourism","tag-spaceshiptwo","tag-virgin-galactic"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}