VSS ''Imagine'' (Virgin Space Ship ''Imagine'') is an unflown ''

SpaceShip III SpaceShip III (SS3, also with Roman numeral: SSIII; formerly SpaceShipThree) was a planned class of spaceplanes by Virgin Galactic to follow SpaceShipTwo. It was first teased on the Virgin Galactic Twitter account on 25 February 2021 announcing t ...

''-class

suborbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will no ...

rocket-powered crewed

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can flight, fly and gliding flight, glide as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and function as a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbit ...

. It was the first SpaceShip III to be ordered and built, and was intended to be used as part of the

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and opera ...

fleet. The spacecraft was rolled out 30 March 2021 and was planned to undergo ground and glide testing during summer 2021. As of January 2024, it had not yet flown (in any form: not a captive carry flight, glide flight, powered flight or any other type of flight). By June 2024, development of ''Imagine'' and VSS ''Inspire'' was canceled, with the intention of using the vehicles for ground testing and development for the successor ''Delta''-class spacecraft.

Overview

VSS ''Imagine'', the first

suborbital spaceplane for

was announced on 25 February 2021 and was rolled out 30 March 2021. It was one of two SpaceShip III class spacecraft on order by Virgin Galactic, the second being VSS ''Inspire''. In November 2021 and again in November 2023, Virgin Galactic stated that it was slowing work on the vehicle to focus on getting VMS ''Eve'' and VSS ''Unity'' back to flight while starting development of its next-generation vehicles.

References

{{Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Individual spaceplanes American spacecraft Suborbital spaceflight Crewed spacecraft Rocket-powered aircraft Space tourism Vehicles introduced in 2021 Experimental vehicles