Virgin Galactic Unveils VSS Imagine Spacecraft Written 30 March 2021

CNBC reports that on Tuesday, Virgin Galactic “unveiled the latest spacecraft addition to its fleet, VSS Imagine, with the spacecraft representing the first of its next-generation SpaceShip III class of vehicles.” The rollout “of VSS Imagine gives the space tourism company a second spacecraft to begin testing, as Virgin Galactic continues to work through final development testing of VSS Unity, with its next spaceflight test expected in May.” VSS Imagine “is the third spacecraft the company has built to date, with VSS Enterprise having been destroyed in a fatal test flight accident in 2014 and VSS Unity having flown two spaceflights so far, its most recent in February 2019.” The “biggest improvement between the SpaceShipTwo and SpaceShip III classes is the turnaround time, both in terms of manufacturing each spacecraft and the amount of maintenance needed between each flight,” according to Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier.
Full Story (CNBC)