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Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Reaches Space for the First Time

Accepted submission by upstart at 2018-12-14 06:58:01
/dev/random

████ sub likely contains entire articles and possibly more, and probably needs a trimmin' ████

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo reaches space for the first time [engadget.com]

The remaining scope of the program depends on how much Virgin Galactic accomplished during this flight. Its current goal is to simulate the weight that would come with ferrying passengers into space, and the experiments "partly" meet that objective. You may have to wait a while for definitive answers.

Actual passenger flights aren't likely to happen for some time. Virgin stressed that it wanted to finish its tests "safely," not just quickly. The successful visit to space makes that more a question of when than if, though, and suggests that Richard Branson might be vaguely realistic when he talks about hopping aboard his own flight within months [engadget.com].

Lovely shot of takeoff! WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo take to the skies pic.twitter.com/JFcSDVB9jR [t.co]

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) December 13, 2018 [twitter.com]

SpaceShipTwo looking back on Spaceship Earth 🌎 pic.twitter.com/ynr31mKzzf [t.co]

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) December 13, 2018 [twitter.com]


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