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Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceship, Enterprise, has made its first solo test flight, in California.

The spaceship was carried to an altitude of 45,000ft (13,700m) by an aeroplane and then dropped to glide back to the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Enterprise will soon be taking people prepared to pay $200,000 (£126,000) on short hops above the atmosphere.

The British billionaire behind the project, Sir Richard Branson, was on hand to witness the drop test.

"This was one of the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin," the entrepreneur said.

"For the first time since we seriously began the project in 2004, I watched the world's first manned commercial spaceship landing on the runway at Mojave Air and Space Port and it was a great moment."

Virgin Galactic is aiming to become the world's first commercial space line, and has already taken deposits from 370 customers who want to experience a few minutes of weightlessness on a suborbital flight.

"We're not far off booking out our first year of operations," said Stephen Attenborough, head of astronaut relations at Galactic.

"We'll see exactly how many we decide to fly in year one, but the intention has always been around 500. We're well on our way to that," he told BBC News.

The Enterprise ship is based on the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne vehicle, which made history in 2004 by successfully flying to 100km (60 miles) in altitude twice in a two-week period.

The new ship, built by Mojave's Scaled Composites company, is bigger and will be capable of carrying eight people - two crew and six passengers.

When it eventually enters service, Enterprise will be carried to its launch altitude by the "Eve" carrier plane before being released in mid-air. Enterprise will then ignite its single hybrid rocket engine to make the ascent to space.

Although Eve and Enterprise have made several test flights together, Sunday was the first time the spaceplane had been released at altitude.

Two pilots were at the controls, Pete Siebold and Mike Alsbury. They guided the ship back to the Mojave runway.

The entire flight took about 25 minutes. On later test flights, Enterprise will fire its rocket engine.

Only when engineers are satisfied all systems are functioning properly will passengers be allowed to climb aboard.

"We are focused on safety and making sure we know everything about this vehicle before we put it into commercial operations. There is a timetable in terms of what we're going to do, but as we've said many times before, 'it takes as long as it takes', Mr Attenborough said.

"The next big milestone will be when we start the rocket motor propulsion tests."

Is there free booze in first class...

Or just Virgin Margaritas?

:-\\

Is there free booze in first class...

Or just Virgin Margaritas? :-\\


With several minutes of zero-gee, your sense of balance will be sufficiently confused even while sober :)

I regret not going to Mojave to witness the X-Prize flights of SpaceShip One.  If I ever find out there's a test flight for SS2 with enough time to make the trip, I'm so there.  

Mojave Spaceport is a small commercial airport in the middle of nowhere.  Conveniently located close to both the middle of nowhere and military airspace, you can pop into the greasy spoon for breakfast and find everything from retirees having a $100 hamburger to aviation geeks getting driven around the tarmac, getting glimpses of interesting shapes in any hangar door that happens to be open, to reminiscing over the logos of airlines gone by as the tour takes you through the postapocalyptic boneyard immediately adjacent to the airport.

Best part about small airports is the atmosphere.  No frills, no reservations, just show up, wander into the nearest building, ask "Hey, you guys got a spot open for a tour?", and even if there aren't any spaceships flying that day, you still get an honest day's breakfast with all the coffee you can drink for less than $10.

The commercial flights will take place from New Mexico's Spaceport America, which will be an awesomely modern facility when it's finished in a year or so, but if I had $200K for a flight, I'd choose to do it out of Mojave.  It was built there, it was tested there, and if I were on board, I'm not gonna have much more than $10 left for breakfast for a while... and there's just something right about eating at a greasy spoon after you've done for $200K what - not too long before you were born - once cost superpowers millions.  (Converting from 1970 dollars to 2010 dollars, the X-15 would have cost about $2B to build and $4M/flight.  It goes much faster, but it also only carries one passenger.)

Here's a 2004 article comparing the X-15 to Space Ship 1, Rutan lays out his plan for "expensive barnstorming with suborbital ships within the next five years. Suborbital flights will become affordable (less than $30,000) within 12 to 15 years."

It's been about 5 years since that interview, and Rutan's basically on track.  At the rate he's going, by the time I can afford $200K for a flight on Space Ship Two, it won't cost $200K.

Now Playing: Joe Satriani, Flying in a Blue Dream.  

I may be dreaming in blue, but I'm no longer dreaming in Technicolor.

Aw jeez, Etheline, the kid's coming at me with all kinds of facts and numbers.  I just asked him a simple question.  What do you mean, kid, are you telling me you don't have gravity-controlled cabins.  They even have those on the shuttle to Io now.  Now what about my booze?  I like an Old-Fashioned.  Just the usual stuff.  None of this space-juice or Martian Dust Iron...

8)

Now what about my booze?  I like an Old-Fashioned.  Just the usual stuff.  None of this space-juice or Martian Dust Iron...


http://www.slashgamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/burnouthover.jpg

Where we're going, we don't need booze! 

(Feh!  I did my googling three times over tonight.  You go find Sigue Sigue Sputnik's "Into the Unknown (Final Tweak?)" 2006, and be sure to post a link here if you find one!  They sampled The Right Stuff, not BTTF, and if I ever go, that's what's playing on my headphones.)