Private jets in space
Saw this news story this morning. The new frontier for private jet travel!
Private spaceliner takes off for inaugural test flight
Slung beneath a jet-driven twin-fuselage mothership, Virgin Galactic’s six-passenger rocket plane took off for its first flight March 22, kicking off a year of increasingly ambitious tests before the craft begins carrying tourists to the edge of space.
The Virgin Space Ship Enterprise spacecraft was firmly bolted under the wing of the four-engine Virgin Mothership Eve during the flight, which lasted 2 hours and 54 minutes, according to a Virgin Galactic statement. The duo soared to an altitude of 45,000 feet after taking off at 7:05 a.m. PDT (1405 GMT) from its home base in Mojave, California.
VSS Enterprise, which was unveiled in a ceremony December 7, is the first copy of the SpaceShipTwo design that Virgin Galactic plans to launch on commercial flights beginning in late 2011 or early 2012. Each SpaceShipTwo craft will carry up to six passengers and two pilots per mission.
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