Bad weather forces Virgin Galactic to delay SpaceShipTwo test flight
The company says it will try again in the next few days
Virgin Galactic has postponed the test flight of its SpaceShipTwo space plane due to bad weather at the Mojave Air and Space Port launch site in California. The supersonic test flight to the edge of the space was scheduled to take place yesterday, but the plane could not take off due to bad weather at Mojave.
"Our test flight window opened this morning, but the Mojave weather isn't cooperating," Virgin Galactic said in a Twitter statement.
"We plan to try again in the next few days. We'll keep you posted."
George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic chief executive, told reporters at Mojave that the company exercises "a lot of caution around weather conditions" during the test flight and won't conduct it if conditions are not ideal.
Todd Ericson, the company's safety and test vice president, said that crosswinds during landing, rather than the upper level winds, are a concern during the space plane's flight.
As per weather forecasts, Thursday is expected to be windy and cloudy day in Mojave. And, Friday's forecast is for sunshine and mild winds.
Whenever the flight launches, this fifth powered test flight of the plane has some specific goals to accomplish. First, Virgin Galactic's engineers want to collect data about the plane's centre of gravity during flight.
Second, the plane will also carry NASA research payloads, which will be little heavier than the last time.
Virgin Galactic plans to perform two or three more test flights of its space plane before sending its billionaire founder more than 80 kilometres the surface of Earth to enjoy the incredible view of the Earth's curvature.
In December, SpaceShipTwo successfully completed a historic test flight, in which the plane reached altitudes exceeding 80 kilometres. This feat put the aerospace firm one step closer to beating rivals like SpaceX and Blue Origin in the race to send paying customers to space.
Virgin uses the altitude of about 80 kilometres to describe the edge of the space. This altitude is also used by NASA and the US Air Force to award astronaut wings.
Branson has already announced that he wants to be on-board the first flight of the space plane 'within six months'.
Tickets on the firm's future commercial flights are estimated to cost $250,000 per person.