LOS ANGELES: Virgin Galactic said Thursday (Friday in Manila) that it expects to launch its first manned test flight into space from New Mexico this month.
The company’s spacecraft, VSS Unity, conducted two previous test spaceflights from Mojave, California, before moving in to its facilities at Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Testing there has included unpowered glide flights and now the spaceflight planned between Nov. 19 and 23.
The spaceport will be Virgin Galactic’s base for launching passengers on brief trips high above the Earth, starting with billionaire founder Richard Branson next year. The company did not announce a specific date for that event.
Unity is designed to be carried aloft beneath a special carrier jet and released at high altitude, where its rocket engine is ignited.
The suborbital flights are designed to send the craft to an altitude of at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) before it descends and glides to a landing on a runway.
In addition to passengers, Unity can carry small science experiments and will do so on this month’s flight, generating some revenue through a NASA program.
Virgin Galactic also has made progress on a second spaceship in its planned fleet and plans to roll it out during the first quarter of 2021, chief executive officer Michael Colglazier said in a statement.
OAKLAND: Facebook on Thursday (Friday in Manila) banned a large group called “Stop the Steal” that supporters of President Donald Trump were using to organize protests against the presidential vote count.
Some members had called for violence, while many falsely claimed that Democrats are “stealing” the election from Republicans.
Though the group amassed more than 350,000 members before Facebook took it down, it was just one of several smaller groups that popped up as vote counting extended for days in several battleground states.
Inside the groups, members and organizers tried to ensure they would get around Facebook’s moderators and “trolls” who might report or mock them.
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