Testy w locie VSS Unity

[NewMan]

A o co właściwie chodziło w tym locie? W czym był taki przełomowy? W powyższych postach o tym nie ma.

Osiągnął wysokość 89,240 km, czyli 55,45 mil.
A 50 mil to według amerykańskiej definicji granica kosmosu, więc dla nich to był już lot "kosmiczny", choć tylko "suborbitalny".

NewMan

[Orionid]

Pierwszy “kosmiczny” lot z Spaceport America
BY KRZYSZTOF KANAWKA ON 24 MAJA 2021

Trzeci lot “kosmiczny”, pierwszy z Spaceport America

Kolejna próba lotu wysokościowego VSS Unity została 22 maja 2021. Lot zakończył się sukcesem: pojazd VSS Unity osiągnął pułap 89,24 km. Za sterami zasiedli Kelly Latimer oraz Michael Masucci.
Za sterami zasiedli Frederick Sturckow oraz David Mackay. (...)
https://kosmonauta.net/2021/05/pierwszy-kosmiczny-lot-z-spaceport-america/

https://twitter.com/virgingalactic/status/1396109190289055749

On VSS Unity’s flight deck were CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay, while Kelly Latimer and Michael Masucci piloted VMS Eve.

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2021/05/22/virgin-galactic-completes-first-human-spaceflight-from-spaceport-america-new-mexico/#more-79190

Virgin Galactic pilots fly first crewed spaceflight from New Mexico

May 22, 2021 — CJ Sturckow's sixth launch into space was unlike any that came before, for him or for anyone else.

Frederick "CJ" Sturckow lifted off on his second suborbital spaceflight as a Virgin Galactic pilot on the company's SpaceShipTwo "Unity" spacecraft on Saturday (May 22). The relatively short hop — the test flight took off at 8:35 a.m. MDT and landed at 9:43 a.m. MDT (1435 to 1543 GMT) — added several more minutes to Sturckow's time outside Earth's atmosphere, which already totaled more than 51 days logged on four space shuttle missions as a NASA astronaut and Unity's first flight into space in December 2018. (...)

On those earlier flights, though, Sturckow launched from Florida or California, just like every other person who left the U.S. soil for space over the past 60 years. On Saturday, Sturckow, together with Virgin Galactic chief pilot Dave Mackay, lifted off from a new place: New Mexico. (...)

Already the first and only person to earn military, NASA and civilian astronaut wings, Sturckow is now also the first person to fly into space from three different U.S. states. He and Mackay are the second crew, however, to return from space to New Mexico. In 1982, NASA's STS-3 crew of Jack Lousma and Gordon Fullerton landed space shuttle Columbia at White Sands Space Harbor near Alamogordo. (...)
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-052221a-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-new-mexico-first.html

Virgin Galactic flies to edge of space for first time from New Mexico
May 23, 2021 Stephen Clark


Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane fires its rocket motor to begin an ascent to the edge of space Saturday. Credit: Virgin Galactic

(...) Sturckow and Mackay, both veteran test pilots who have flown prior SpaceShipTwo missions, re-oriented the craft’s 43-foot-wide (13.1-meter) tail booms for descent back through the atmosphere. The pilots steered the spaceplane back to a landing at on a 12,000-foot (3,657-meter) runway at Spaceport America, the same location where the vehicle took off slung under the belly of Virgin Galactic’s VMS Eve carrier jet. (...)
https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/05/23/virgin-galactic-flies-to-edge-of-space-for-first-time-from-new-mexico/

https://twitter.com/richardbranson/status/1396133945394143232

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/about/biographies/pilots/kelly-latimer.html

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2021/05/virgin-galactic-another-attempt-new-mexico/

AA (2) https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=3432.msg165325#msg165325

[kanarkusmaximus]

Oo! Dzięki!