Trying to decide where to book your next vacation? How about outer space? Virgin Galactic is still in the test phases, but it is getting closer to realizing its goal of sending tourists into space.
Last Friday Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip 2 took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California and made its third successful test flight. SpaceShip 2 is carried to 46,000 feet aboard a carrier aircraft that takes off on a runway similar to an airplane. When it reaches a specific altitude it drops SpaceShip 2 into a short free fall. The rocket motor then takes over and propels SpaceShip 2 upward. Pilots David Mackay and Mark Stucky flew the unique spacecraft 71,000 feet above the Earth’s surface.
Watch the video footage below to see the flight:
Unlike SpaceX, which has been focusing more on commercial transport of supplies, satellites, and eventually people, Virgin Galactic has its sights on the future Space Tourism industry. Richard Branson hopes to launch the first space tourists into space later this year. Tickets are $250,000 a piece, and people are already signed up!