Michael visits the new SpaceShipTwo at SpaceShipCompany in the Mojave desert.
Michael is a Virgin Galactic Pioneer Astronaut since 2011 and plans to travel into space with Richard Branson´s SpaceShipTwo in the near future. The spaceship vehicles are designed to carry two pilots and six passengers on launches into suborbital space. On 31 October 2014 (Michael´s Birthday) during a test flight, VSS Enterprise, the first SpaceShipTwo craft, broke up in flight and crashed in the Mojave desert. A preliminary investigation suggested the feathering system, the craft's descent device, deployed too early.
After more than one year of intensive work by the VG team the second SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, VSS Unity, was unveiled on 19 February 2016. The vehicle is currently undergoing ground and air system integration testing. Michael was given the opportunity to visit the SpaceShipCompany factory located in the Mojave desert and also talk to the engineers about their work.