/sci/ - Science & Math

the mission profile

>The flight begins at takeoff, with SpaceShipTwo Unity tucked beneath its VMS Eve mothership and attached to a pylon in between the carrier plane's twin booms. Eve will fly SpaceShipTwo up to an altitude of 50,000 feet (15,000 meters), where it will drop the Unity space plane and pull away to a safe distance.

>Aboard Unity, Massucci and Sturckow will ignite the space plane's hybrid rocket motor and ascend into space, reaching an altitude of at least 50 miles (80 kilometers), which the FAA and U.S. military have recognized as the boundary of space.

>At the peak of the flight, Unity and its crew will experience about four minutes of weightlessness, at which time the Gilbert, Huie, Mays and Moses can exit their seats, float about the cabin and look at Earth through Unity's large round windows.

>After those four minutes are over, the passengers will strap back into their seats for the return to Earth, with Massucci and Sturckow relying on a unique "feathering" system that folds its twin tail booms back and up like a shuttlecock to stabilize Unity during reentry. The space plane will then make a runway landing at Spaceport America to end the flight.