Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo has had a pretty incredible April so far, and we're barely even two weeks in. SpaceShipTwo already resembles something that you might expect to see in the Prometheus sequel, but on April 3, the Virgin Galactic craft achieved a pretty remarkable pose during a test flight in the Mojave Air and Space Port, as it flew past a full moon in the afternoon sky.
The SpaceShipTwo picture was captured by photographer Bill Deaver, who remarked on his good luck in capturing the shot in an interview with Space.com columnist Leonard David:
"I used a Nikon D90 and Tamron 18-250 lens handheld — nothing fancy. I've been trying to get that shot for some time and this morning the 'stars' lined up just right!" Deaver told David. "The flight followed the usual pattern with the drop and glide preceded by a fuel dump from the spaceship. The weather was perfect and the wind was blowing out of the east, which meant that when the spaceship slid to a stop on its landing gear and wooden nose skid, the handful of spectators got a whiff of burnt wood!"
In addition to the E.T.-evoking photograph, SpaceShipTwo also struck a neat pose for MarsScientific.com. In a photograph posted on Friday, we can clearly see SpaceShipTwo's contrail coming out from the craft's rear exhaust in the form of an oxidizer stream flowing through its engine. A number of observers have pointed out that the sight of the contrail indicates a powered, suborbital flight might be imminent.
To date, SpaceShipTwo has completed numerous unpowered flights as a very expensive glider, essentially, but it's never fired its engine in the air. For more on the contrail story, check out our main article here.
