Virgin Galactic is Starting Flight Tests for Newest Spaceship

After a crash in late 2014, Virgin Galactic's space ambitions were grounded for a while. But time does heal all wounds, even those on a spaceship.

Virgin Galactic is finishing ground tests for Virgin Spaceship (VSS) Unity this August and is moving to conduct tests in the skies. Unity was announced in February as the replacement for SpaceShipTwo, which crashed in the Mojave Desert.

 

These tests are to culminate in the final stage of testing — independent, fully powered flights — next year.

Virgin has yet to release the target date for the first official flight. “We’ve thrown out so many dates in the past that we weren’t able to keep to, we’re being a bit more conservative this time,” Company VP Jonathan Firth told Bloomberg.

Despite the lack of a launch date and a $250,000 ticket price, the company has already sold 700 tickets, to the likes of Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Leonardo DiCaprio.