Private spaceship - SpaceShipTwo

The ship was raised to a height of 13.7 kilometers of carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo (' White Knight 2' ), where SpaceShipTwo separated from the aircraft. The ship spent 11 minutes in the air before landing on the runway in a spaceport in the Mojave Desert (Mojave Air and Space Port - the first airport designed for horizontal launches and landings of spacecraft taking off ). In total, the test lasted 25 minutes.



During the flight, Virgin Galactic specialists checked the ship's specifications, and practiced the technique of landing. The press release says that all systems were working normally SpaceShipTwo. Before you undertake this mission, the staff of Virgin Galactic had 40 preparatory missions, four of which carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo flew down with the ship. During one such flight in the spacecraft did not work the engine and it could not be separated from the aircraft carrier, said the Associated Press.