Blue
Origin and Virgin
Galactic have been promising for over
a decade to provide flights to suborbital
space for paying customers. This could finally
be the year one or both companies fulfill
these promises.
Virgin Galactic has now transferred most
of their operations to Spaceport
America in New Mexico. (There are two
new SS2 vehicles under construction in Mojave.)
That is where they will fly "spaceflight
participants" to greater than 80 kilometers
in altitude aboard SpaceShipTwo rocketplanes.
..
The company carried out the first
drop glide test of a SpaceShipTwo from
the New Mexico facility on May 1, 2024.
No word yet on when the first suborbital
spaceflight from Spaceport America will
happen. A SpaceshipTwo vehicle has not flown
to space since the flight of VSS Unity on
Feb.22.2024:
..
They will soon begin test flights in New
Mexico, low atltitude at first and then
to space.
Blue Origin flew New Shepard to over 100
kilometers on Dec.11.2024:
..
The company says it needs to carry out
a few more test flights before a New Shepard
will carry people on board. Initially these
will be company employees.
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