Human space flight — and space tourism — took a welcome step forward on Saturday.
That’s because Virgin Galactic made New Mexico the third U.S. state to ever host a space launch. The test flight of the company’s VSS Unity lifted off from Spaceport America in Truth or Consequences, NM a little after 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday morning.
If you’ve gotten into the habit of tuning in to check out SpaceX launches involving the Falcon 9 launch rocket, it’s worth noting that this one is a little different. The VSS Unity is carried into the sky not by a massive rocket, but by a carrier plane.
This design, dubbed SpaceShip Two, is actually more of a spaceplane. The carrier ship, in this case the VMS Eve, ferries its spacefaring cargo up to the release altitude (44,000 feet). At that point, the Unity detaches from its mothership and ignites its own onboard rocket that takes it the rest of the way into near-orbit.
Once the rocket burn is complete, the Unity coasts along before gliding back down to the Earth and landing on a conventional runway. It never fully escapes from the pull of Earth’s gravity — that’s what makes it a suborbital flight. These trips aren’t meant to kick off deep space journeys; in fact, Virgin Galactic’s principal focus is catering to space tourism. A SpaceShip Two flight gives passengers a taste of what it’s like to see their home planet from an orbital distance.
That’s exactly what happened on Saturday. The VMS Eve took flight a bit after 10:30 a.m., and it took about an hour for it to reach the correct release altitude. The Unity took flight on its own at that point, ascending up to 55.45 miles above the Earth’s surface before starting its descent.
The whole flight on Saturday took about two hours, with the Unity touching down shortly before 12:30 p.m. ET. Virgin Galactic deemed the test Company founder Richard Branson was there on the ground in New Mexico to take in the scene.
To celebrate the historic moment for New Mexico, Virgin Galactic painted a Zia Sun Symbol on the Unity’s exterior, a nod to the state’s flag and its indigenous Zia tribe. Green chile seeds were also part of the Unity’s cargo in a nod to New Mexico’s “rich agricultural and culinary history,” according to a press release.
“The Zia Sun Symbol is one of our most sacred symbols, central to the Pueblo of Zia,” said Frederick Medina, governor of Zia Pueblo. “We are pleased that Virgin Galactic reached out to our Pueblo for permission to utilize this iconic symbol of the state of New Mexico. It is an honor to work with Virgin Galactic and to know that a part of Zia Pueblo will be traveling to space.”