VSS Unity

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The VSS Unity in February 2016

The VSS Unity ( aircraft registration N202VG) is the second spacecraft in the SpaceShipTwo class. The spaceplane was built by Virgin Galactic for commercial use. The "VSS" in the name stands for "Virgin Space Ship".

Procedure and history of use

The space plane, built by the manufacturer The Spaceship Company , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Virgin Galactic, is transported by an air-breathing carrier aircraft to an altitude of around 15 kilometers. As with the Enterprise, the carrier aircraft is the White Knight Two VMS Eve. After sufficient separation from the carrier aircraft, Unity starts its rocket engine and, after the initial acceleration, goes into a steep climb. If the engine burns out after 60 seconds at an altitude of around 42 kilometers, the spacecraft is around Mach 3. This is followed by an unpowered parabolic flight with a perceived weightlessness and no seat belt obligation for the passengers. After the descent, the non-powered glider lands on a landing strip.

After the crash of the sister ship VSS Enterprise in October 2014, the construction progress of the VSS Unity was estimated at 65%. On February 20, 2016, the VSS Unity was officially presented in the Mojave Air & Space Port . The first glide flight took place in December 2016 and the first powered flight on April 5, 2018. On December 13, 2018, the Unity peaked at 51.4 miles (82.7 km). This was the first time that it crossed the 50 mile (80.5 km) limit, which in the United States is considered the limit of space . It reached a speed of Mach  2.9. The two pilots Rick Sturckow - a former NASA astronaut - and Mark Stucky meet the requirements for receiving the astronaut badge as a commercial astronaut of the Federal Aviation Administration . Internationally, the boundary to space is the Kármán line at an altitude of 100 km, which the VSS Unity did not cross on this flight.

With the next test flight in February 2019, the Unity reached an altitude of almost 90 km. As it became known only two years later, damage to the elevons , the control elements on the wings, occurred during this flight . The Unity then had to remain on the ground for 14 months until these components were redesigned and replaced. During the next powered flight attempt in December 2020 - the first from Spaceport America in New Mexico - the engine did not ignite; the pilots then carried out a safe landing. On May 22, 2021, a successful test flight was made up to an altitude of 89 kilometers.

For the first time, more than two pilots were planned as participants for the following flight on July 11, 2021: These were the Virgin Galactic employees Dave Mackay (pilot), co-pilot Michael Masucci, and Sirisha Bandla (management and authority contacts) as passengers Operations engineer Colin Bennett, astronaut instructor Beth Moses and ultimately the founder of Virgin Galactic Richard Branson as a passenger. Due to various installations of test equipment, the possible number of passengers at VSS Unity was reduced from six to four people. The flight reached an altitude of 282,000 feet (approximately 86 km) and was landed on schedule.

Web links

Commons : VSS Unity  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Virgin Galactic acquires full ownership of The Spaceship Company. In: News. The Spaceship Company, October 5, 2012, archived from the original on February 21, 2016 ; accessed on May 26, 2021 (English).
  2. ↑ Space tourism: Virgin Galactic presents new SpaceShipTwo. Spiegel Online, February 20, 2016, accessed February 20, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Detlef Stoller: Virgin Galactic creates gliding and landing with VSS Unity. ingenieur.de, December 6, 2016, accessed December 16, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Ulrike Ebner: VSS Unity flies with rocket propulsion for the first time. In : flugrevue.de. April 8, 2018, accessed April 12, 2018 .
  5. ^ Tariq Malik: Virgin Galactic's 4th Powered Test Flight of SpaceShipTwo Unity in Twitter Posts. space.com, December 13, 2018, accessed December 14, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Jackie Wattles: Virgin Galactic's supersonic plane reaches space. CNN, December 13, 2018, accessed December 14, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Doug Messier: As Virgin Galactic Crew Celebrated Second Suborbital Flight, Problems Loomed Behind the Scenes . Parabolic Arc, February 2, 2021.
  8. ↑ Mike Wall: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two suffers apparent abort in 1st launch from Spaceport America . Space.com, December 12, 2020.
  9. ↑ Jonathan Amos: Virgin Galactic rocket plane flies to edge of space. In: Science. BBC , May 22, 2021, accessed July 3, 2021 .
  10. ↑ Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin Ring in Space Tourism , MDR, July 10, 2021
  11. ↑ race decided? Branson wants to go into space before Bezos , tagesschau.de, July 2, 2021
  12. ↑ Virgin Galactic unveils new suborbital spaceplane . Spacenews, March 30, 2021.
  13. ↑ Galactic Flies Branson, Crew To Suborbital Space , aviationweek.com, July 11, 2021