US regulator grounded Virgin Galactic after space travel incident | Abroad

Virgin Galactic reports that it is working closely with the FAA and “trying to determine the cause of the incident.” The spaceplane, the SpaceShipTwo, flew to an altitude of about 86 kilometers in July. The aircraft was piloted by two pilots. Branson himself and three of his closest associates were the passengers.

At that altitude, the atmosphere slowly fades into the vacuum of the universe. During flight, the aircraft travels more than three times as fast as the sound. At the top, the passengers are weightless for a short time. They float through the aircraft. Through the windows they see the curvature of the earth, the stars and the dark universe.

After a short while, gravity pulls the spaceplane down slowly. During that landing, the aircraft flew slightly lower than had been agreed for almost 2 minutes. Virgin Galactic acknowledges that, but says there was no danger to others. According to the company, the aircraft was blown slightly off course by high winds.

Virgin Galactic wants to sell tourist flights to space, and Branson wanted to promote that with his own flight. He is in a fierce competition with two other multi-billionaires. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who went to space a week after Branson, and Elon Musk (Tesla, PayPal, SpaceX) have also plunged into space tourism.

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