Virgin Galactic’s carrier aircraft VMS Eve took to the California skies yesterday for an important two-and-a-half-hour flight test. It’s the latest sign that the Richard Branson-founded company is preparing to resume suborbital flights.
Last month, Virgin Orbit ran into trouble when its LauncherOne rocket crashed, destroying seven payloads on board in an attempt to deploy satellites in low Earth orbit. Now, the company suspects that the cause of the anomaly could have been a pesky filter that only cost around $100.
Virgin Investments Limited has pumped $55 million into Virgin Orbit since November of last year, in what is a troubling sign for the fledgling satellite launch company.