海角大神

After a successful sound-barrier-smashing test flight, from a camera on its prize spaceship鈥檚 tail. The view, though not as extraordinary as the one that future ticketed passengers can expect to see as they float at the craft鈥檚 windows, is a white-knuckle-inducing聽one of a plume of fire and a distant desert below.

SpaceShipTwo, or SS2, Virgin Galactic鈥檚 supersonic spacecraft built for suborbital tourism, made its second and 29th聽free flight last week. The flight began at about 8 a.m. on Thursday, when the company鈥檚 WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft lifted off from the Mojave Air and Space Port, in the Southwestern US鈥檚 Mojave Desert, with SS2 in tow.

At an altitude of 46,000 feet, SS2 was released, like prey spared from an eagle鈥檚 claws, and pilots Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols ignited the rocket. For 20 seconds, the orange-black plume propelled the spaceship to 69,000 feet and to a maximum speed of Mach 1.43 鈥� or supersonic speed, faster than the speed of sound. In the video, overlaid with audio from the craft鈥檚 cockpit, the two pilots鈥� voices strain in counting down the seconds of powered flight.

The mission then wrapped up with a test of the SS2鈥檚 feather system, a slowing mechanism designed to smoothly bring the craft back to Earth and a first for a rocket-powered flight. The total flight time was about 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Virgin Galactic, owned by Richard Branson鈥檚 Virgin Group and Aabar Investments, the Abu Dhabi joint stock company, is often credited with pioneering a still-limited market for space tourism, and SS2 is considered the front-runner to be the world鈥檚 first commercial spacecraft. If all goes well in future tests, the company expects that SS2 will be lofting passengers into space in about one year 鈥� though the company had said back in 2005 that 2007 was the target date for commercial operations to begin.

SS2鈥檚 speed and altitude are unusual per the standards of standard plane travel 鈥� the average commercial jet flies at about , or Mach 0.84 (subsonic). But those numbers are not yet at planned, commercial-ready levels. SS2鈥檚 69,000 foot altitude puts it in the stratosphere, the second highest of the atmosphere鈥檚 four thermal zones, which means that it is some 260,000 feet below what is called the K谩rm谩n line, where the World Air Sports Federation defines space as beginning.

To reach that K谩rm谩n line, SS2 will have to reproduce the success of the company鈥檚 previous craft, SpaceShipOne. That ship reached 367,442 feet (69.6 miles) in 2004, booming into space and winning its maker the $10 million Ansari X Prize. But SS1 was not commercially viable, with room for just two passengers and one pilot, the company had said. The new, roomier craft seats six and has space for two pilots, as well as two large windows per passenger (鈥淣o more squabbling over who has the best seat!鈥� the company says .)

This was the second test flight for SS2, putting the craft at its highest altitude and fastest speed yet. In April, the ship had delighted potential space tourists when it made its first rocket-powered flight, smashing the sound barrier at 1.2 Mach and at 55,000 feet, in a spectacular demonstration of what an business magnate's money could buy.

After landing, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson toasted what Mr. Branson called 鈥溾�� by cracking champagne bottles on the craft鈥檚 nose. Virgin Galactic also celebrated with a price uptick, raising the cost of seat on the craft from $200,000 to $250,000.

So far, Justin Bieber, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Ashton Kutcher, and Tom Hanks have all booked rides in the craft. And they are not alone: The company reports that it has accepted $70 million in deposits from approximately 580 people for its spaceflights since it began selling spots in 2005.

A ticket purchases membership in 鈥減erhaps the with privileged access to all aspects of the project as it progresses,鈥� the company says. Besides that, ticket-holders can expect, after a physical and three days of training, 鈥渁n out-of-the-seat, zero-gravity experience with astounding views of the planet from the black sky of space.鈥�

Plus, 鈥渓ater that evening, sitting with your astronaut wings, you know that life will never quite be the same again,鈥� the company says.

Flights are to depart from , a sleek, 24-acre complex under construction at a cost of $209 million to the state. , the spaceflight start-up, began using the port this spring to test the Grasshopper, a reusable rocket.