Virgin Galactic starts last phase of VSS Unity space plan testing

VSS Unity's suborbital spacecraft arrived at Virgin Galactic's launch site in New Mexico, United States, to undergo the latest series of tests before launching suborbital tourist flights. This is reported by the SpaceNews. Virgin Galactic plans to conduct suborbital tourist flights using its own system from the White Knight Two carrier plane and the SpaceShipTwo cosmoplanes. The second space plane of this series, called VSS Unity, will be used for the last stage of flight testing. The main purpose of this stage will be to check the reliability of the spacecraft during launches with pilots and four passengers in the cabin. There were no more than three people on board VSS Unity during previous test launches. Virgin Galactic noted that this phase of testing will be final before commercial launches begin. At the same time, the company did not name the exact number of forthcoming test flights. Virgin Galactic plans to launch a space tourism program in 2020. The cost of a tourist suborbital flight will be about $250,000 per seat. As previously reported by the news agency, Virgin Galactic introduced a training course for future space tourists in November 2019.