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The hybrid Nitrous Oxide rocket that will take SpaceShipTwo to 105km above the Earth at 4000kph (YES!) has fired off for the first time in the southern California desert. Founder, adventurer and cool-guy-at-large Sir Richard Branson is happy:
It looks like the Europervs got a bad case of penis envy: They are now working on a suborbital plane–in the image–similar to the SpaceShipTwo and a hypersonic passenger plane called SpaceLiner.
Tipster Brian Houston over at Videosift.com received an email from Virgin’s Velocity rewards program with the above image attached. He reckons it’s hinting at the ability to redeem your Velocity frequent flyer points for a seat on their Virgin Galactic flights. I reckon he’s probably right. Obviously we’ll have to wait for February to come around before we know for certain, but if it is the case, expect to pay an absolute crapload of frequent flyer points for the privilege. In fact, if you don’t already fly Virgin everywhere, and have a Velocity rewards credit card for all your expenses, I’d say you probably won’t ever earn enough points to redeem a Galactic flight. In any case, we’ll see what Virgin have to say come February…
[Videosift - Thanks Brian!]
We saw ground tests last week, but yesterday morning WhiteKnightTwo–the funky-looking double-wide plane that will take SpaceShipTwo and its cargo of millionaires on suborbital spaceflights–finally took off on its maiden voyage.
It becomes less and less a future fever dream every day: Spaceport America in Las Cruces, NM, Virgin Galactic’s future home, has gotten FAA approval to begin construction.
