VIRGIN Galactic's space tourism rocket SpaceShipTwo achieved its first solo glide flight on Sunday, marking another step in the company's eventual plans to fly paying passengers.

SpaceShipTwo was carried aloft by its mothership to an altitude of 13,715 meters and released over the Mojave Desert. After the separation, SpaceShipTwo, manned by two pilots, flew freely for 11 minutes before landing at an airport runway followed by the mothership.

The entire test flight lasted about 25 minutes.

"It flew beautifully," said Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides.

The six-passenger SpaceShipTwo is undergoing rigorous testing before it can carry tourists into space. In the latest test, SpaceShipTwo did not fire its rocket engine to climb to space.

Until now, SpaceShipTwo has flown attached to the wing of its special jet-powered mothership dubbed WhiteKnightTwo. Sunday was the first time the spaceship flew on its own.

"It's a very big deal," Virgin president Sir Richard Branson said. "There are a number of big deals on the way to getting commercial space travel becoming a reality. This was a very big step. We now know that the spaceship glides. We know it can be dropped safely from the mothership and we know it can land safely. That's three big ticks."

SpaceShipTwo will make a series of additional glide flights before rocketing to space. "The next big step will be the rocket tests actually on the spacecraft itself," Branson said. "We obviously have done thousands of rocket tests on the ground, the next big test is in the air. We'll be doing gentle rocket tests in the air, ultimately culminating into taking the spaceship into space."

Tickets to ride aboard SpaceShipTwo cost US$200,000 and some 370 customers have put down deposits totaling US$50 million, according to Virgin Galactic. Commercial flights will fly out of New Mexico where a spaceport is under construction.

• flight [flait] n.逃走；飞行；班机 (初中英语单词)
• altitude [´æltitju:d] n.高度；海拨 (初中英语单词)
• freely [´fri:li] ad.自由地；慷慨地 (初中英语单词)
• executive [ig´zekjutiv] a.行政的 n.行政官 (初中英语单词)
• commercial [kə´mə:ʃəl] a.商业的 n.广告节目 (初中英语单词)
• reality [ri´æliti] n.现实(性)；真实；逼真 (初中英语单词)
• safely [´seifli] ad.安全地；平安地 (初中英语单词)
• series [´siəri:z] n.连续；系列；丛书 (初中英语单词)
• additional [ə´diʃənəl] a.附加的，额外的 (初中英语单词)
• actually [´æktʃuəli] ad.事实上；实际上 (初中英语单词)
• obviously [´ɔbviəsli] ad.明显地；显而易见地 (初中英语单词)
• aboard [ə´bɔ:d] ad.&prep.在...上 (初中英语单词)
• mexico [´meksikəu] n.墨西哥 (初中英语单词)
• construction [kən´strʌkʃən] n.建设；修建；结构 (初中英语单词)
• separation [,sepə´reiʃən] n.分离；分开；分居 (高中英语单词)
• virgin [´və:dʒin] a.处女(般)的 n.处女 (高中英语单词)
• ultimately [´ʌltimitli] ad.最后，最终 (英语四级单词)
• rocket [´rɔkit] n.火箭；火箭发动机 (英语六级单词)
• landing [´lændiŋ] n.登陆；降落；楼梯平台 (英语六级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)