Feathering System News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The pilots are still responsible for firing the rocket engine, for turning it off, and for deploying that feathering system that allows the spaceship to re-enter the earth's atmosphere. if you're a test pilot, this is a fun spaceship to fly because you're in control of it, which is why so many nasa space astronauts love fly the space shuttle. the down side is it can be a little more dangerous like we saw with the two shuttle accidents and we saw inner accident in 2014 with virgin galactic when it was actually a co-pilot's error that led to his death, a terrible tragedy that the virgin galactic...

Decades of educating all the rest of us not just about this world but out of this world. back to rachel crane on the ground. we're now seen the feathering system where the plane is raising its wings, it's reorienting and falling back to earth to prepare photo land. is that right? >> reporter: that's right, brian, and we actually just haired the sonic booms of re-entry which we didn't know if we would hear that. that was something that it was what the crowd started cheering about. we're hearing richard on the ground here at spaceport america. i know you guys have the delay, but we're hearing --...

Accelerated up into space. at the very top, they reached the very edge of space and experienced those precious few minutes of weightlessness which is when sir richard branson achieved his lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut. two other mission specialists also became astronauts as well. the other three creigh members had already flown to the edge of space. then we saw that flawless descent. virgin galactic had an accident back in 2017 because the feathering system was deployed too early. it led to the death of one of the test pilots. virgin galactic changed the spacecraft to prevent that fr...

Beautiful re-entry. and it appears that that re-entry is directly above me right now. and the re-entry feathering system that caused that 2014 deadly accident, working just beautifully, no problems here today, at least from what i can tell. for now it's going to be descending in a spiral motion, really acting as a glider, as spaceship 2 makes its way right back, landing on the runway it took off from, from spaceport america. brian, what a name for this place. spaceport america in truth or consequences, new mexico. and the entire state of new mexico is really hoping that this marks the beginnin...

Center in new mexico. u what is your sense of that plane as it was taking off, how fast does it go and why do pilots love flying it? >> they love flying it because they're actually flying it. much like the space shuttle, this is a pretty much fully analog plane in the sense that these pilots are the ones firing those rocket engines, turning them off and then deploying the space plane's feathering system to allow it to re-enter the earth's atmosphere. you know what i was thinking about, it was ten years ago this month that nasa retired a very similar-looking spacecraft, the space shuttle. it to...