It was conceived to provide suborbital spaceflights usually defined as 100 kilometers to space tourists, suborbital launches for space science missions, and orbital launches of small satellites with the possibility to provide orbital human spaceflights in the future. Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft is air launched from a ‘buddy’ airplane. “We are progressively closer to our target of starting commercial service in 2014″ supposed Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides.
The intended date for the first commercial flight , initial announced for 2014, was scheduled as February or March of 2015. But the development of the spaceship was not easy to achieve. They spent 10 years trying to perfect one engine and failed to attempt predicted results. A new one was build and a new kind of fuel tested, consisting in a plastic-based mix. But Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane exploded and crashed during a test flight on Friday, when the rocket engine was tested in flight for the first time in more than nine months. One crew member was killed and another was seriously injured. The flight originated from the Mojave Air and Space Port, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. The FAA is investigating the incident.
