Watch SpaceShipTwo's First Feathered Flight

By Nancy Atkinson - May 19, 2011 at 12:35 PM UTC | Space Exploration

On May 4, 2011 Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo achieved a major milestone by flying for the first time using its "feathered" configuration, and the company has now released a close-up video of the flight. Feathering is designed to create drag and slow the ship down after it reenters the atmosphere from eventual suborbital flights taking tourists into space. This flight confirmed the feathering design should work.

"Now we now have an entry vehicle – now we can come back from space," said Matt Stiemetze, Program Manager at Scaled Composites

SpaceShipTwo went airborne attached to WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft, and after a 45 minute climb to 51,500 feet, SS2 was released from VMS Eve and established a stable glide profile before deploying. The feathering configuration is achieved by rotating the tail section of the vehicle upwards to a 65 degree angle to the fuselage. During the test flight, it remained in this configuration with the vehicle's body at a level pitch for approximately 1 minute and 15 seconds while descending, almost vertically, at around 15,500 feet per minute, slowed by the powerful shuttlecock-like drag created by the raised tail section. At around 33,500 feet the pilots reconfigured the spaceship to its normal glide mode and executed a smooth runway touchdown, approximately 11 minutes and 5 seconds after its release from VMS Eve.

On return trips from space, the tail will lower at around 70,000 feet.

Nancy Atkinson

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