Watch: Take a 70,000-Foot Ride in the Sky With Virgin Galactic Test Pilots
We’re a sucker for anything that puts us in the cockpit of an exciting flight, and Virgin Galactic has kindly obliged. A day after the successful second test flight of SpaceShipTwo, the company out to define commercial space travel released a video combining a camera view out the tail showing the rocket motor plume, with audio from the test pilots during the 20-second powered flight.
The video starts while SpaceShipTwo is still attached to its mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo. Moments later it’s released, and a few seconds after that — with the nitrous-oxide flowing — the rubber-fueled rocket motor is ignited.
Scaled Composites test pilots Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols get an immediate kick into the back of their seats as the spacecraft accelerates through the sound barrier. The effect of the high g-forces can be heard in their strained voices and breathing.
More: Watch: Take a 70,000-Foot Ride in the Sky With Virgin Galactic Test Pilots