Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company owned by billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, has been granted a license by U.S. authorities to restart testing of its rocket plane following a fatal crash in 2014.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA-AST) has approved Virgin Galactic an operator license for SpaceShipTwo. Virgin Galactic unveiled its latest version of the SpaceShipTwo earlier this year with design alterations to avoid a repeat of the accident took place in 2014.
Future passengers who are willing to fork out $250,000 will be taken up into the air by an aircraft called WhiteKnightTwo. When it reaches a certain altitude, SpaceShipTwo will be launched into space around 68 miles above the Earth’s surface before re-entering the planet’s atmosphere.
Virgin Galactic also said that its team conducted a taxi test with the SpaceShipTwo and a Range Rover Autobiography.
