Ride Along With SpaceShipTwo: Tail Footage Video of Latest Test Flight

By Nancy Atkinson - September 6, 2013 at 5:24 PM UTC | Space Exploration

Yesterday, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo successfully completed its second supersonic rocket-powered test flight. In

our previous article

, we were able to share a video view of the flight -- as seen from the ground. But now Virgin Galactic has shared the flight footage from a camera mounted on the tail of the ship, allowing us all to ride along and see the views. I'm hoping for they'll eventually show a cabin view video so that we can see what the ride inside will be like.

The ship went to 69,000 feet (21 km, 13 miles) but you can still see the blackness of space and the curvature of Earth in the video.

Virgin Galactic Founder Sir Richard Branson said yesterday that commercial flights with passengers should begin in 2014 ... which is next year, meaning that perhaps space flight for the rest of us is not always 5-10 years off anymore.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com