Virgin Galactic carries space tourism rocket aloft on 1st test flight tied to mothership

Spaceship makes 1st flight strapped to mothership

MOJAVE, Calif. — Virgin Galactic’s new space tourism rocket has been taken aloft over the California desert by a mothership aircraft on its first so-called captive-carry test flight.

Virgin Galactic says in a statement on its Web site that Monday’s flight at the Mojave Air and Space Port was successful.

The spaceship remained attached to the specially designed jet-powered mothership throughout the flight.

In the future, the spaceship will be launched from the larger aircraft, fire its rocket and carry passengers on a suborbital thrill ride into space before gliding to a landing — for about $200,000 a ticket.

It’s the second generation of the Burt Rutan-designed system that sent the first privately developed, manned rocket into space in 2004.