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July 27, 2023

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May 25, 2023

VSS UNITY RETURNS TO SPACE Read More

March 7, 2023

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February 17, 2023

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July 27, 2022

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July 6, 2022

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April 12, 2022

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October 25, 2021

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October 8, 2021

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October 1, 2021

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August 5, 2021

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July 15, 2021

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July 15, 2021

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June 25, 2021

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June 18, 2021

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May 22, 2021

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February 25, 2021

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November 23, 2020

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October 27, 2020

VIRGIN GALACTIC HIRES 2 NEW PILOTS Read More

June 22, 2020

VIRGIN GALACTIC SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH NASA Read More

May 1, 2020

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February 25, 2020

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February 13, 2020

VSS UNITY MOVES TO SPACEPORT AMERICA Read More

October 16, 2019

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August 22, 2019

SPACEPORT AMERICA: UNVEILING NEW AREAS Read More

February 22, 2019

VSS UNITY RETURNS TO SPACE WITH 3 ONBOARD Read More

January 7, 2019

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December 13, 2018

VIRGIN GALACTIC'S VSS UNITY REACHES SPACE Read More

December 7, 2018

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July 26, 2018

VG ANNOUNCES VSS UNITY BREAKS MACH 2 Read More

July 6, 2018

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April 9, 2018

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April 5, 2018

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April 5, 2018

VSS UNITY'S FIRST POWERED TEST FLIGHT Read More

August 4, 2017

UPDATE: VSS UNITY 6th GLIDE FLIGHT Read More

May 1, 2017

VSS UNITY'S FIRST FEATHER FLIGHT Read More

December 3, 2016

VSS UNITY COMPLETES HER FIRST GLIDE FLIGHT Read More

September 8, 2016

VIRGIN GALACTIC IS IN THE AIR AGAIN! Read More

May 22, 2015

VG FIRST MAJOR MILESTONE IN RETURN TO FLIGHT PLAN Read More

Dec 5, 2014

NASA LAUNCHES ORION SPACECRAFT - FIRST STEP TO MARS Read More

May 23, 2014

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January 10, 2014

VG 3rd POWERED TEST FLIGHT SUCESSFUL Read More

September 5, 2013

VG ACHIEVES SECOND SUPERSONIC FLIGHT Read More

May 29, 2013

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May 29, 2013

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VIRGIN GALACTIC: WE ARE BACK IN THE AIR

September 8, 2016 - VSS Unity has taken to the skies! Following earlier tests, the spaceship VSS Unity was cleared for her first ‘captive carry’ flight mated to VMS Eve. This is of course the first flight of VSS Unity; built by Virgin Galactic's sister company The Spaceship Company (TSC), the first mission conducted by Virgin Galactic’s own Operations team and the first crewed by Virgin Galactic pilots (Dave Mackay and Mark Stucky in VSS Unity and Mike Masucci and Todd Ericson in VMS Eve). So it is an important and emotional milestone for all of the team. It was especially thrilling to see the beautiful photos of the vehicles together in the air!

The flight follows years of designing, manufacturing, and testing every individual component and subsystem, followed by several months of thorough and rigorous Integrated Vehicle Ground Testing. Virgin galactic has now fully entered the flight test program and will be sharing more detail on that soon, from a series of glide flights to rocket powered test flights of increasingly ambitious scope (you can read a little more on this here). They may sometimes look the same, but each flight also runs a number of test objectives and every flight generates extremely valuable test data. For example, today’s ‘captive carry’ flight captured a huge amount of high fidelity aerodynamic performance data on the spaceship as VMS Eve essentially serves as a unique ‘flying wind tunnel.’

The Virgin Galactic engineers are busy analysing the data from the flight now, and the output is one factor that informs when the next flight will be. There is still some way to go, experimental flight test programs are by definition open-ended. But today’s milestone is an important one and from all of the team at Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company. Here’s to many more flights ahead!