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SpaceShipTwo

SpaceShipTwo evolved SpaceShipOne's air-launched, feathered- concept into a two-pilot cabin vehicle. Enterprise established the early powered envelope; its fatal loss reshaped the program; Unity returned the design to powered flight and ultimately carried .

Missions: 19
People: 40
Vehicles: 2

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From prototype risk to commercial suborbital service

Program details2013–2024Scaled Composites · The Spaceship Company · Virgin Galactic · 2010–2024

Flight record19 flights19 crewed · 0 uncrewed

First flown missionVSS Enterprise PF01April 29, 2013

Latest flown missionGalactic 07June 8, 2024

Core capabilities

Two-pilot operations

Expanded the concept from a single-seat experimental craft to a piloted multi-person cabin.

Carrier-aircraft launch

WhiteKnightTwo/VMS Eve lifted the spacecraft to its rocket-release point.

Feathered recovery

Used a high-drag reentry configuration before converting to a conventional glide and runway landing.

Research cabin

Developed from flight testing into a platform for private astronauts and human-tended microgravity research.

Program story

VSS Enterprise began the SpaceShipTwo flight-test program with captive-carry and glide missions before its first rocket-powered flight in April 2013. Three powered flights expanded the supersonic envelope and tested the feather system while engineers prepared for higher-altitude missions.

On powered flight PF04 in October 2014, the feather was unlocked prematurely during transonic acceleration. Aerodynamic loads forced it to deploy, Enterprise broke apart, copilot Michael Alsbury died, and pilot Pete Siebold survived with serious injuries. The NTSB found that the system design and hazard analysis had not adequately protected against a single human error.

VSS Unity incorporated design and procedural changes and resumed powered testing in 2018. Three progressively higher powered flights prepared the first Unity spaceflight that December. The later Unity program carried test crews, private astronauts, and researchers through Galactic 07, completing the development arc that began with Enterprise.