SpaceShipTwo goes supersonic on first powered flight

Private joyrides and research trips to the edge of space just got closer to reality. Today Virgin Galactic's suborbital plane SpaceShipTwo fired its thrusters mid-air and completed its first rocket-powered test flight high over the Mojave desert.

The commercial space plane, docked to its carrier mothership WhiteKnightTwo, took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in southern California at 14.02 UTC Monday. The pair rose to an altitude of about 14 kilometres, and then the carrier ship released SpaceShipTwo.

Moments later, test pilots Mark Stucky and Mike Alsbury triggered ignition of the rocket motor, which flared dramatically, prompting cheers and applause from spectators on the ground.

The engine burn lasted for 16 seconds. Under its own power, SpaceShipTwo climbed to 16.7 kilometres and accelerated to 1470 kilometres per hour ? just over the speed of sound ? before beginning its descent. The entire test flight lasted about 10 minutes and ended with a smooth landing back at the spaceport.

Transformational flight

"Today's supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion of the spaceship's powered flight envelope, with a very realistic goal of full space flight by the year's end," Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson said in a written statement. "We saw history in the making today and I couldn't be more proud of everyone involved."

Ultimately, the ship's rockets will fire for 70 seconds, allowing it to carry six passengers and two pilots to a maximum altitude of about 100 kilometres, the unofficial boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space. Passengers will experience about 5 minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth.

For now the cost per seat is $200,000, but Branson hopes to see trips get more affordable as private space flight becomes routine.

"This is a big step forward," says Alan Stern, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado and founder of private moon mission company Golden Spike. He plans to fly on a future Virgin Galactic research flight, possibly as early as 2014 if all goes well. "Suborbital is going to make a space-access revolution for researchers, educators and private individuals. It's going to be transformational."

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