'We're incredibly pleased': Branson's Virgin Galactic gets approval to fly people to space

Billionaire Richard Branson's spaceship company Virgin Galactic has received approval from the US aviation safety regulator to fly people to space. The company announced on June 25 that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) updated the Company’s existing commercial space transportation operator license to allow the spaceline to fly customers to space. As per the company statement, the testing program of the aircraft met the verification required by FAA.

Virgin Galactic can fly people to space

After the green signal from the FAA, the Virgin Galactic can now fly the people to space. The FAA's licence upgrade follows a successful test outing for the plane, conducted on 22 May. It was the Company’s third crewed spaceflight and the first-ever spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico. The flight achieved a speed of Mach 3 and reached space at an altitude of 55.5 miles. The data collected during the testing program of the flight  met the verification required by Federal agency. 

The May 22 flight successfully carried three revenue-generating research experiments that tested and demonstrated technologies in microgravity as part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program. The pilots flew VSS Unity on a specific trajectory designed to meet the objectives of these research experiments. Michael Colglazier, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Galactic was pleased at the achievement of the flight test. He said that the flight performed well and the approval by the FAA marks the success of test flight. 

“We’re incredibly pleased with the results of our most recent test flight, which achieved our stated flight test objectives. The flight performed flawlessly, and the results demonstrate the safety and elegance of our flight system. Today’s approval by the FAA of our full commercial launch license, in conjunction with the success of our May 22 test flight, give us confidence as we proceed toward our first fully crewed test flight this summer", Michael Colglazier said in the statement.

IMAGE: AP