Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity Glide Flight Successful; Sub-Orbital Commercial Flights to be Available Soon?

Commercial space flights will soon be available to the public after spaceflight company, Virgin Galactic, successfully glided its SpaceShipTwo-class spaceplane, VSS Unity, over the Mojave desert.

According to The Verge, VSS Unity went on its first free flight on Friday, playing out an unpowered coast over the Mojave Desert. VSS Unity was dropped from its transporter plane, WhiteKnightTwo, and flew alone without any rocket engine before landing effectively at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Gizmodo reported that VSS Unity -- which was presented in February -- was dropped from its carrier plane, WhiteKnightTwo, at around 10:40am ET to begin the test flight. Virgin Galactic says VSS Unity reached an estimated speed of 460 miles an hour from a height of around 50,000 feet over the Mojave Desert.

Check out pictures of @VirginGalactic's 1st Glide Flight of the #VSS Unity Spaceship https://t.co/O8k4dke0xJ pic.twitter.com/d4kGl1h3xV

— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) December 5, 2016

Also, VSS Unity reportedly stayed in the air for 10 minutes throughout the test flight, an achievement that denotes another part in the spaceplane's voyage toward future commercial spaceflight. VSS Unity was piloted by Mark Stucky and Dave Mackay, while pilots Mike Masucci and Todd Ericsson joined by flight engineer Dustin Mosher were aboard WhiteKnightTwo.

The successful flight comes over two years after Virgin Galactic's first SpaceShipTwo-class spaceplane, USS Enterprise, encountered a problems mid-flight - killing its co-pilot and injuring its pilot. VSS Unity's successful test glide is a big push forward for the spaceflight company and advanced sub-orbital flights.
According to Virgin Galactic, this was the fifth flight VSS Unity and its transporter plane have taken together, however it was the first run through VSS Unity flew independently from WhiteKnightTwo.

Per Virgin Galactic's report, data gathered by the test flight team aboard WhiteKnightTwo and feedback from VSS Unity's pilots shows that the test flight went very well. However, the spaceflight company will be examining the collected data thoroughly. Virgin Galactic plans to conduct additional glide tests before the rocket engine will be ignited in the air.