Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Completes First Flight From Spaceport America

今日の英語の習慣化の題材は、記事としては少々古くなりますが、Virgin Galactic 2の新基地、New Mexicoでの初のSolo Flight (単独飛行)成功の話からです。

このBlogでも航空機や宇宙ものなど色々とお読み頂いておりますので、この手の記事は簡単でしょう？

Coronavirus外出自粛の最中、またまた、果てしない宇宙に夢を馳せましょう！

LAS CRUCES, N.M.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE) (“Virgin Galactic” or “the Company”) and The Spaceship Company (“TSC”) today announced the successful completion of its first SpaceShipTwo test flight from Spaceport America.

This glide flight marks the inaugural solo flight of VSS Unity in New Mexico and as such is an important flight test milestone in preparation for commercial service.

On SpaceShipTwo’s flight deck were Dave Mackay and CJ Sturckow who, together with the team in Mission Control, executed some of the key elements of a spaceflight profile. These included take-off and landing along with high-altitude release from the mothership, VMS Eve, which was piloted by Michael Masucci and Kelly Latimer.

The flight took off from the Spaceport America runway, with VSS Unity attached to the carrier aircraft, VMS Eve. The vehicles climbed to an altitude of 50,000ft before Unity was released, at which point VSS Unity flew freely for the first time in New Mexico airspace. The spaceship achieved a glide speed of Mach 0.70 and completed multiple test-points, before touching back down smoothly for a runway landing at Spaceport America.