Gliding into History

The commercial spaceflight industry took another step forward on Sunday when Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo performed its first solo glide flight. After being released by its mothership at 45,000 feet, the craft flew for 11 minutes and then made a safe landing. Virgin Galactic expects commercial flights in SpaceShipTwo to begin in about 18 months and has already sold hundreds of tickets, priced at an astounding $200,000 each. More on the story, including video of the flight, here.

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