Film of Virgin Galactic's Space Ship 2's Second Test Flight

On Sept. 5 at 8am, Virgin's White Knight 2 took off carrying Space Ship 2 for it's second powered test flight.

At 46,000 feet, pilots Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols released Space Ship 2 and fired their rocket engine, for a 20 second burn, a short time later.

During the burn they climbed to 69000 feet and attained a speed of 1.43 mach.

This flight was to test the engine of course but another facet of the unusual craft they wanted to put through it's paces was the movable tail section, which can be moved through 65 degrees of motion.  The purpose of which is to allow the ship to reenter the denser atmosphere and give the pilots a much easier controlled vehicle as it descends.   Where the tail can be rotated back to it's launch position for landing.

Virgin is still looking towards 2014 to begin flying passenger using a fleet of five Spaceship 2 type vehicles.