U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao recently pinned\nFAA Astronaut Wings on Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo crewmembers, Test Pilots\nMark \u201cForger\u201d Stucky and Fredrick \u201cCJ\u201d Sturckow. Last year\u2019s historic\nspaceflight marked the nation\u2019s return to space on an American-made rocket, and\npaves the way for future travel to space with commercial spaceflight\nparticipants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are entering a new and exciting frontier in our nation\u2019s\nspace activities,\u201d said Secretary Chao. \u201cThese wings represent a remarkable\nachievement for these crewmembers and tell all Americans that their access to\nthe wonders of space may be within their reach.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On December 13, 2018, Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo, named\nthe \u201cVSS Unity\u201d was carried aloft by the WhiteNight Two carrier aircraft from\nthe Mojave, California Air and Space Port. With Stucky and Sturckow onboard the\nVSS Unity, the WhiteNight Two gradually climbed to an altitude of almost 40,000\nfeet where it released the spacecraft. \nStucky and Sturckow lit the engine and guided the VSS Unity 51.39 miles\n(271,340 feet) above the Earth and into space. \nThe vehicle returned from space and safely glided back to the spaceport,\nguided by its pilots. The VSS Unity was manufactured in America by The\nSpaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virginia Galactic and\nheadquartered in the Mojave dessert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sir Richard Branson, the Founder of Virgin Group said, \u201cThe\nU.S. leads the world both in the exploration of space and in creating the\nconditions for a new space age, where it will operate alongside and in\npartnership with the private sector. While today\u2019s awards ceremony is, of\ncourse, a proud moment for our wonderful pilots and the whole Virgin Galactic\nteam, it is also symbolic of an enabling regulatory framework that allows for\ninnovation while prioritizing safety. It is this which has allowed us to pursue\nour dreams and which will ultimately underpin our commercial success as we seek\nto democratize space for the benefit of humankind.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stucky and Sturckow now become two of only four Americans to\nreceive FAA Astronaut Wings. In 2004, Scaled Composites was awarded the $10\nmillion Ansari XPrize when it sent the reusable SpaceShipOne on two successful\nFAA-licensed commercial spaceflights. The test pilots of those flights, Mike\nMelvill and Brian Binnie, received their FAA Astronaut Wings directly after the\nlast flight of the vehicle on Oct. 4, 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FAA is responsible for licensing, overseeing, and\nregulating all U.S. commercial space transportation activities. Among the many FAA requirements for Astronaut\nWings is the requirement that the wings are only to be awarded to crewmembers\nwho fly beyond 50 statute miles above the surface of the Earth on a launch\nvehicle licensed (or permitted) by the FAA\u2019s Office of Commercial Space\nTransportation. A statute mile is one land-measured mile. Learn more about FAA\ncommercial space transportation activities, including FAA Astronaut Wings, on\nour website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao recently pinned FAA Astronaut Wings on Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo crewmembers, Test Pilots Mark \u201cForger\u201d Stucky and Fredrick \u201cCJ\u201d Sturckow. Last year\u2019s historic spaceflight marked the nation\u2019s return to space on an American-made rocket, and paves the way for future travel to space with commercial spaceflight participants. \u201cWe are entering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Spaceship-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11898,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11896\/revisions\/11898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}