Space News reports that Virgin Galactic’s carrier aircraft made its first flight in more than a year on Wednesday as the company looks to start commercial service. The VMS Eve left the Mojave Air and Space Port in California for a flight lasting more than two and a half hours before returning to the airport. This was the first flight for VMS Eve “since it flew to Mojave from Spaceport America in New Mexico in October 2021.” The company “performed an extensive overhaul of the plane while in Mojave, including replacing the center pylon where the SpaceShipTwo spaceplane is attached.”
Full Story (Space News)
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Virgin Galactic Says Test Flight Problem Has Been Identified
The AP reports that Virgin Galactic “said Thursday it has completed analysis of why its spacecraft’s rocket failed to ignite during a test flight over New Mexico last month and work to fix the problem has begun.” The company said in a statement, “Once the corrective work has been implemented and verified, we will confirm our pre-flight timeline for the next test flight and share expected dates for when the flight window will open.” Details on what went wrong were not provided; however, at the time of the incident, “Virgin Galactic said the onboard computer monitoring the rocket motor lost connection, triggering a fail-safe scenario that halted ignition.”
Full Story (Associated Press)