| SpaceShipOne | |
| Number Built: | 1 |
| Developed Into: | SpaceShipTwo |
| Sole Example Of Type?: | Yes |
| Aircraft Name: | REQUIRED IF STANDING ALONE |
| SpaceShipTwo | |
| Size: | 300px |
| Type: | Passenger spaceplane |
| First Flight: | 10 October 2010 (first glide flight) 29 April 2013 (first powered flight) 13 December 2018 (first spaceflight) |
| Number Built: | 2 |
| Developed Into: | The Spaceship Company SpaceShip III |
| VSS Enterprise (N339SS) | |
| Sole Example Of Type?: | n |
| Type: | Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo |
| Manufacturer: | Scaled Composites |
| Construction Number: | 1 |
| Civil Registration: | N339SS |
| First Flight: | 10 October 2010 (crewed gliding flight)29 April 2013 (powered flight) |
| Owners: | Virgin Galactic |
| Status: | Destroyed |
| Fate: | Crashed 31 October 2014 |
| VSS Unity | |
| Sole Example Of Type?: | n |
| Aircraft Name: | VSS Unity |
| Type: | Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo |
| Manufacturer: | The Spaceship Company |
| Construction Number: | 2 |
| Civil Registration: | N202VG[1] |
| Owners: | Virgin Galactic |
| In Service: | Retired |
| Fate: | Retired 8 June 2024 |
| SpaceShip III | |
| National Origin: | United States |
| Introduction: | 2021 |
| Status: | Under development |
| Produced: | since 2021 |
| Number Built: | 1 |
The following is a list of Virgin Galactic launches since 2003.
The Virgin Galactic series of vehicles, starting with SpaceShipOne, are more comparable to the X-15 than orbiting spacecraft like the Space Shuttle. Accelerating a spacecraft to orbital speed requires more than 60 times as much energy as accelerating it to Mach 3. It would also require an elaborate heat shield to safely dissipate that energy during re-entry.[2]
See main article: SpaceShipOne. Although not a Virgin Galactic launcher, SpaceShipOne was the direct predecessor of the Virgin Galactic vehicles, and served to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept. SpaceShipOne was an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to 3,000 ft/s (900 m/s), using a hybrid rocket motor. The design featured a unique "feathering" atmospheric reentry system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail booms folds 70 degrees upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increases drag while retaining stability. SpaceShipOne completed the first crewed private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. Its mother ship was named "White Knight". Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen and Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million.
Rutan has indicated that ideas about the project began as early as 1994 and the full-time development cycle time to the 2004 accomplishments was about three years. The vehicle first achieved supersonic flight on December 17, 2003, which was also the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic first powered flight. SpaceShipOne's first official spaceflight, known as flight 15P, was piloted by Mike Melvill. A few days before that flight, the Mojave Air and Space Port was the first commercial spaceport licensed in the United States. A few hours after that flight, Melvill became the first licensed U.S. commercial astronaut. The overall project name was "Tier One" which has evolved into Tier 1b with a goal of taking a successor ship's first passengers into space.
SpaceShipOne's official model designation is Scaled Composites Model 316.
The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) was an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It was manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic.
SpaceShipTwo was carried to its launch altitude by a White Knight Two aircraft, before being released to fly on into the upper atmosphere, powered by its rocket engine. It then glided back to Earth and performed a conventional runway landing.[3] The spaceship was officially unveiled to the public on 7 December 2009 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.[4] On 29 April 2013, after nearly three years of unpowered testing, the first one constructed successfully performed its first powered test flight.[5]
Virgin Galactic planned to operate a fleet of five SpaceShipTwo spaceplanes in a private passenger-carrying service.[6] [7] [8] [9] Virgin Galactic took bookings for many years, with a suborbital flight ticket price rising quite heavily throughout the years.[10] The spaceplane was also used to carry scientific payloads for NASA and other organizations.[11]
See main article: VSS Enterprise. VSS Enterprise (tail number: N339SS[12]) was the first SpaceShipTwo (SS2) spaceplane, built by Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic. As of 2004, it was planned to be the first of five commercial suborbital SS2 spacecraft planned by Virgin Galactic.[13] [14] It was also the first ship of the Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo class, based on upscaling the design of the record-breaking SpaceShipOne.
The VSS Enterprises name was an acknowledgement of the USS Enterprise from the Star Trek television series. The spaceplane also shared its name with NASA's prototype Space Shuttle orbiter, as well as the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.It was rolled out on 7 December 2009.[15]
SpaceShipTwo made its first powered flight in April 2013. Richard Branson said it "couldn't have gone more smoothly".[16]
On 31 October 2014, during a test flight, the first SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise broke up in flight and crashed in the Mojave desert.[17] [18] [19] [20] A preliminary investigation suggested that the craft's descent device deployed too early.[21] [22] One pilot, Michael Alsbury, was killed; the other was treated for a serious shoulder injury after parachuting from the stricken spacecraft.[23] [24]
See main article: VSS Unity.
VSS Unity (Virgin Space Ship Unity, Registration: N202VG), previously referred to as VSS Voyager, was a SpaceShipTwo-class suborbital rocket-powered crewed spaceplane. It was the second SpaceShipTwo-spacecraft to be built and was used as part of the Virgin Galactic fleet.
VSS Unity[25] was unveiled on 19 February 2016.[26] [27] [28] [29] The spacecraft completed ground-based system integration testing in September 2016,[30] after which the vehicle flew its first test flight also in September 2016.[31] Its first flight to space (above 50 miles altitude), VSS Unity VP03, took place on 13 December 2018.[32] It flew its final test flight (that is, final flight with only Virgin Galactic personnel onboard), Unity 25, on 25 May 2023. It flew its first operational flight (that is, flight carrying passengers that were not Virgin Galactic employees), Galactic 01, on 29 June 2023. It flew its last flight, Galactic 07, on 8 June 2024, after which it was retired.
SpaceShip III (SS3, also with Roman numeral III; formerly SpaceShipThree) is an upcoming class of spaceplanes by Virgin Galactic to follow SpaceShipTwo. It was first teased on the Virgin Galactic Twitter account on 25 February 2021 announcing the rollout of the first SpaceShip III plane on 30 March 2021.[33]
On 17 December 2003—on the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers first powered flight of an aircraft—SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie on Flight 11P, made its first rocket-powered flight and became the first privately built craft to achieve supersonic flight.[34] All of the flights of SpaceShipOne were from the Mojave Airport Civilian Flight Test Center. Flights were numbered, starting with flight 01 on May 20, 2003. One or two letters are appended to the number to indicate the type of mission. An appended C indicates that the flight was a captive carry, G indicates an unpowered glide, and P indicates a powered flight. If the actual flight differs in category from the intended flight, two letters are appended: the first indicating the intended mission and the second the mission actually performed.
| Date | Top speed | Altitude | Duration | Pilot | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01C | May 20, 2003 | 14.63 km[35] | 1 h 48 min | uncrewed | ||
| 02C | July 29, 2003 | 14 km | 2 h 06 min | Mike Melvill | ||
| 03G | August 7, 2003 | 278 km/h | 14.33 km | 19 min 00 s | Mike Melvill | |
| 04GC | August 27, 2003 | 370 km/h | 14 km | 1 h 06 min | Mike Melvill | |
| 05G | August 27, 2003 | 370 km/h | 14.69 km | 10 min 30 s | Mike Melvill | |
| 06G | September 23, 2003 | 213 km/h | 14.26 km | 12 min 15 s | Mike Melvill | |
| 07G | October 17, 2003 | 241 km/h | 14.08 km | 17 min 49 s | Mike Melvill | |
| 08G | November 14, 2003 | 213 km/h | 14.42 km | 19 min 55 s | Peter Siebold | |
| 09G | November 19, 2003 | 213 km/h | 14.72 km | 12 min 25 s | Mike Melvill | |
| 10G | December 4, 2003 | 213 km/h | 14.75 km | 13 min 14 s | Brian Binnie | |
| 11P | December 17, 2003 | Mach 1.2 | 20.67 km | 18 min 10 s | Brian Binnie | |
| 12G | March 11, 2004 | 232 km/h | 14.78 km | 18 min 30 s | Peter Siebold | |
| 13P | April 8, 2004 | Mach 1.6 | 32.00 km | 16 min 27 s | Peter Siebold | |
| 14P | May 13, 2004 | Mach 2.5 | 64.43 km | 20 min 44 s | Mike Melvill | |
| 15P | June 21, 2004 | Mach 2.9 | 100.124 km | 24 min 05 s | Mike Melvill | |
| 16P | September 29, 2004 | Mach 2.92 | 102.93 km | 24 min 11 s | Mike Melvill | |
| 17P | October 4, 2004 | Mach 3.09 | 112.014 km | 23 min 56 s | Brian Binnie |
| Code | Detail |
|---|---|
| GFxx | Glide Flight |
| CCxx | Captive Carry Flight |
| CFxx | Cold Flow Flight |
| PFxx | Powered Flight |
| Fxx | Feathering deployed |
| Flight designation | Date | Duration | Maximum altitude | Top speed | Pilot / co-pilot | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 / GF01 | 10 October 2010 | 13 min | 46000feet | 180knots EAS 2 g | Siebold / Alsbury | |
| 44 / GF02 | 28 October 2010 | 10 min, 51 sec | 230knots EAS 3 g | Stucky / Alsbury | ||
| 45 / GF03 | 17 November 2010 | 11 min, 39 sec | 246knots EAS 3.5 g | Siebold / Nichols | ||
| 47 / GF04 | 13 January 2011 | 11 min, 34 sec | 250knots EAS 3.8 g | Stucky / Nichols | ||
| 56 / GF05 | 22 April 2011 | 14 min, 31 sec | Siebold / Shane | |||
| 57 / GF06 | 27 April 2011 | 16 min, 7 sec | Stucky / Alsbury | |||
| 58 / GF07 | 4 May 2011 | 11 min, 5 sec | 51500feet | 15500ft/min | Siebold / Nichols | F01 |
| 59 / GF08 | 10 May 2011 | 13 min, 2 sec | Stucky / Shane | |||
| 60 / GF09 | 19 May 2011 | 11 min, 32 sec | Siebold / Binnie | |||
| 61 / GF10 | 25 May 2011 | 10 min, 14 sec | Above 50000feet | Stucky / Binnie | F02 | |
| 62 / (CC12) | 9 June 2011 | Siebold / Shane | Release failure during flight intended as GF11 | |||
| 64 / GF11 | 14 June 2011 | 13 min, 18 sec | Siebold / Shane | |||
| 65 / GF12 | 15 June 2011 | 10 min, 32 sec | Stucky / Nichols | |||
| 66 / GF13 | 21 June 2011 | 8 min, 55 sec | Siebold / Nichols | |||
| 67 / GF14 | 23 June 2011 | 7 min, 33 sec | Stucky / Nichols | |||
| 68 / GF15 | 27 June 2011 | 7 min, 39 sec | Siebold / Binnie | |||
| 73 / GF16 | 29 September 2011 | 7 min, 15 sec | Stucky / Nichols / Persall | F03 | ||
| 87 / GF17 | 26 June 2012 | 11 min, 22 sec | Siebold / Alsbury | |||
| 88 / GF18 | 29 June 2012 | 13 min | Stucky / Mackay | |||
| 90 / GF19 | 18 July 2012 | 10 min, 39 sec | Siebold / Nichols | |||
| 91 / GF20 | 2 August 2012 | 8 min | Stucky / Nichols | F04 | ||
| 92 / GF21 | 7 August 2012 | 9 min, 52 sec | Siebold / Colmer | F05 | ||
| 93 / GF22 | 11 August 2012 | 8 min, 2 sec | Stucky / Binnie | |||
| 109 / GF23 | 19 December 2012 | 13 min, 24 sec | Stucky / Alsbury | |||
| 113 / GF24 | 3 April 2013 | 9 min | Stucky / Nichols | F06 | ||
| 114 / CF01 | 12 April 2013 | 10 min, 48 sec | Stucky / Alsbury | |||
| 115 / PF01[41] [42] | 29 April 2013 | 13 min | 56000feet | Mach 1.22 | Stucky / Alsbury | |
| 130 / GF25 | 25 July 2013 | 11 min, 52 sec | Stucky / Mackay | |||
| 131 / GF26 | 8 August 2013 | 10 min | Stucky / Mackay | F07 | ||
| 132 / PF02 | 5 September 2013 | 14 min | 69000feet | Mach 1.43 | Stucky / Nichols | F08 |
| 141 / GF27 | 11 December 2013. | 11 min | Stucky / Masucci | |||
| 147 / PF03 | 10 January 2014 | 12 min, 43 sec | 72000feet[43] | Mach 1.4 | Mackay / Stucky[44] | F09 |
| 149 / GF28 | 17 January 2014 | 14 min, 12 sec | Siebold / Sturckow | |||
| 156 / GF29[45] | 29 July 2014 | 12 min | Masucci / Siebold | |||
| 164 / CF02 | 28 August 2014 | 13 min | Siebold / Alsbury | |||
| 170 / GF30[46] | 7 October 2014 | 10 min, 30 sec | Siebold / Sturckow[47] | F10 | ||
| ?? / PF04 | 31 October 2014 | 0 min, 13 sec | roughly 50000feet[48] | ? (at least Mach 0.92) | Siebold / Alsbury[49] | Unintended feathering destroys vehicle in-flight |
| Code | Detail |
|---|---|
| GFxx | Glide Flight |
| CCxx | Captive Carry Flight |
| CFxx | Cold Flow Flight |
| PFxx | Powered Flight |
| Fxx | Feathering deployed |
| Flight designation | Date | Duration | Maximum altitude | Top speed | Pilot / co-pilot / passengers | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 / CC01 | 8 September 2016 | 15.2 km (50,000 ft) | Stucky / Mackay | [50] | |||
| 02 / CC02 | 1 November 2016 | Strong winds, no release during flight intended as GF01[51] | |||||
| 03 / CC03 | 3 November 2016 | Strong winds, no release during second attempt at GF01 | |||||
| 04 / CC04 | 30 November 2016 | Test of minor modifications | |||||
| 05 / GF01 | 3 December 2016 | 10 minutes[52] | 16.8 km (55,000 ft) | Mach 0.6 | Stucky / Mackay | First Glide Flight[53] [54] [55] [56] | |
| 06 / GF02 | 22 December 2016 | Stucky / Mackay | [57] | ||||
| 07 / GF03 | 24 February 2017 | Sturckow / Mackay | 3rd Glide Flight | ||||
| 08 / GF04 | 1 May 2017 | Stucky / Masucci | F01[58] | ||||
| 09 / CF01 | 1 June 2017 | Mackay / Sturckow | [59] | ||||
| 10 / GF06 | 4 August 2017 | Mackay / Sturckow | First flight with major propulsion components aboard.[60] [61] | ||||
| 11 / GF07 | 11 January 2018 | Mach 0.9 | Stucky / Masucci | [62] [63] [64] [65] | |||
| 12 / PF01 | 5 April 2018 | 25.7 km (84,300 ft) | Mach 1.87 | Stucky / Mackay | F02[66] | ||
| 13 / PF02 | 29 May 2018 | 34.9 km (114,501 ft)[67] [68] | Mach 1.9 | Mackay / Stucky | Test of changed center of gravity as passenger seats carried for first time. F03[69] | ||
| 14 / PF03 | 26 July 2018 | 52.1 km (170,800 ft)[70] | Mach 2.47 | Mackay / Masucci[71] | Reached Mesosphere for first time.[72] | ||
| 15 / VP-03 | 13 December 2018 | 82.7 km (271,330 ft) | Mach 2.9[73] | Stucky / Sturckow | Reached outer space for first time according to the US definition of the space border.[74] | ||
| 16 / VF-01 | 22 February 2019 | 89.9 km (295,007 ft)[75] [76] | Mach 3.04 | Mackay / Masucci / Moses | Carried third crew member (1 in the passenger cabin) for the first time | ||
| 17 / GF08 | 1 May 2020 | 15.24 km (50,000 ft)[77] | Mach 0.7 | Mackay / Sturckow | First flight from New Mexico | ||
| 18 / GF09 | 25 June 2020 | 15.54 km (51,000 ft)[78] | Mach 0.85 | Stucky / Masucci | |||
| 19 | 12 December 2020 | Mackay / Sturckow | First attempted crewed spaceflight from New Mexico, aborted due to computer malfunction, engine ignited and automatically turned off.[79] | ||||
| 21 / VF-03 | 22 May 2021 | 89.23 km (55.45 mi) | Mackay / Sturckow | First crewed spaceflight (above 50 miles) from New Mexico[80] | |||
| 22 | 11 July 2021 | 86.1 km (53.5 mi)[81] | Mackay / Masucci / Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennett, Beth Moses, Richard Branson | First fully crewed flight included Richard Branson. | |||
| 24 / GF10 | 26 April 2023 | 9 minutes | 13.5 km (47,000 ft) | Sturckow / Pecile | [82] | ||
| 25 | 25 May 2023 | 14 minutes | 87.2 km (54.2 mi) | Mach 2.94 | Masucci / Sturckow / Moses / Mays / Gilbert / Huie | [83] [84] | |
| Galactic 01 | 29 June 2023 | 13:50 minutes | 85.1 km (52.9 mi) | Mach 2.88 | Masucci / Pecile / Villadei / Carlucci / Pandolfi / Bennett | First VSS Unity commercial service flight, carrying members of the Italian Air Force.[85] | |
| Galactic 02 | 10 August 2023 | 15:38 minutes | 88.5 km (55.0 mi) | Mach 3.00 | Sturckow / Latimer / Moses / Goodwin / Schahaff / Mayers | First VSS Unity flight carrying a private astronaut.[86] | |
| Galactic 03 | 8 September 2023 | 12:37 minutes | 88.6 km (55.1 mi) | Mach 2.95 | Masucci / Pecile / Moses / Baxter / Reynard / Nash[87] | ||
| Galactic 04 | 6 October 2023 | 14:23 minutes | 87.4 km (54.3 mi) | Mach 2.95 | Latimer / Sturckow / Moses / Rosano / Beattie / Salim[88] | ||
| Galactic 05 | 2 November 2023 | 14:20 minutes | 87.2 km (54.2 mi) | Mach 2.96 | Masucci / Latimer / Bennett / Stern / Gerardi / Maisonrouge[89] | ||
| Galactic 06 | 26 January 2024 | 88.8 km (55.2 mi) | Mach 2.98 | Sturckow / Pecile / Borozdina / Vaughn / Haider / Kornswiet | |||
| Galactic 07 | 8 June 2024 | 87.5 km (54.4 mi) | Mach 2.96 | Pecile / Janjua / Atasever/ Manenti /Pergament / Sadhwani | Final Unity flight |