![](https://more-deals.info/images_blogs/autopia/2010/07/vss-enterprise_close-up-660x425.jpg "VSS Enterprise First Flight The Triumph of Private "Enterp")
UPDATE 1:45 p.m. PDT: Witnesses at the Mojave Air and Space Port report that SpaceShipTwo was still mated to WhiteKnightTwo when it landed today, which means there was no glide flight today.
No official word from Virgin Galactic or Scaled Composites on a first flight yet, but there's been a lot of activity at Scaled Composites lately. If SpaceShipTwo hasn't already made its first glide flight, we expect it to happen soon.
WhiteKnightTwo, the mother ship that will carry SpaceShipTwo to altitude for its first flight, has made several flights over the past month. Three of the four most recent flights were flown by test pilot Peter Siebold and described as practices for SpaceShipTwo glide flight missions with "SS2 approach simulations." A fourth flight was flown by test pilot Mark Stucky with the same description. So it is clear the flight test team has been preparing for the first glide flight.
SpaceShipTwo made its first captive flight back in March (pictured above) and a second captive flight was made in May. Siebold is the Director of Flight Testing at Scaled and spoke with us last year at Oshkosh about flying Eve, the mother ship that carries the new spacecraft.
Like its mother ship predecessor, White Knight, the cockpit of Eve has the same basic cockpit configuration as the spacecraft. Eve can be configured to fly like SpaceShipTwo during the approach phase of the flight profile to simulate the glide path to the runway before the first flight of the spacecraft. Think of it as a simulator that flies.
SpaceShipOne made several glide flights where the spacecraft is carried to altitude and released. The test pilots use the flights to assess flight characteristics and the relatively steep approach path to the runway before the first powered flights are made. Even during powered flights into space, SpaceShipTwo will return to earth as a glider after reentering the atmosphere.
The Virgin Galactic program has been delayed somewhat lately and the company says passenger flights would not happen until later in 2011 at the earliest.
*Photo: Virgin Galactic
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