On December 13th 2018, Virgin Galactic announced that it had successfully flown its spacecraft to the edge of space, marking a milestone for the would be consumer space flight company. The spacecraft VSS Unity lifted off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, attached to the belly of a larger craft called the WhiteKightTwo, aka VMS Eve. At 43,000 feet, Unity was released from Eve as it fired its rocket motor, eventually achieving a velocity of Mach 2.9.
Pilots, Mark Stucky and Frederick Sturchow continued their rocket burn for 60 seconds, propelling the VSS Unity to an altitude of 54.1 miles, which is 1.4 miles above what NASA considers to the boundaries of space. At that height, it is possible to witness the stars against the background of the darkness of space. Then, with its tail folded it reentered the atmosphere, at supersonic speed, and glided back to the Space Port runway in the Mojave desert.
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