NEW YORK, February 26. /TASS/. Virgin Galactic intends to conduct the next flight tests of the Unity spacecraft from the SpaceShipTwo series in the United States in May, the company announced on Thursday on the company's website.

Earlier it was expected that the tests will take place on February 13 in the US state of New Mexico. It was canceled on February 12. Virgin Galactic then noted that it had made the decision to allocate additional time for technical checks.

According to documents released on Thursday, the new flight is scheduled for May. It is planned that during the tests, a carrier aircraft with a spacecraft will rise into the air over New Mexico. During the flight, Unity, which is expected to have two pilots, must detach from the aircraft and start its engine.

In December 2020, similar tests ended unsuccessfully. The spacecraft, designed for suborbital flights, detached from the carrier and started its engine, but turned it off after a second. Then it made a gliding flight down and landed safely.