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Why is this important: Virgin Galactic has not flown into space since February 2019, when it allowed three people to complete a mission. This was a milestone launch (the company reached space for the second time and carried passengers for the first time), but it also caused damage to the horizontal stabilizer, leading to safety reviews and renovations. Saturday’s flight was the first full space flight test of these upgrades. The company tried to return to space in December last year, but due to electromagnetic interference, the mission was suspended midway through the flight.
This is also the first space flight launched from New Mexico (now the third state in the United States to send humans into space)-Virgin Galactic intends to conduct all its commercial flights from the US spaceport, with the goal of launching 400 each year flight.
A major year: In many ways, 2021 will be a year of success or failure for Virgin Galactic.It was founded by Richard Branson in 2004 and hopes Space tourism A reality. But the company has been plagued by development delays and many high-profile failures (the crash of the first SpaceShipTwo in October 2014 that resulted in the death of a pilot is still fresh in memory).Achieved for the company 400 times a year, You need to prove that it can fly quickly, consistently and safely.
To this end, Virgin Galactic plans to conduct three more manned missions this year, one with two pilots and four company employees as passengers, one with Branson as passengers, and one as a commercial flight for the Italian Air Force. The last mission is for Virgin Galactic to bring customers into space for the first time, and is expected to bring in revenue of $2 million. The company may also try to make a taxi flight for its newly launched SpaceShipThree this summer. Presumably, all these activities will set the company into commercial operations as early as next year.
At the same time, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic’s main competitor in the space tourism market, plans to bring a manned mission into space for the first time on July 20, when a six-person crew will enter the suborbital space on a New Shepard aircraft.
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