The U.S. Federal Aviation Authority has granted [3] Virgin Galactic's [4] aircraft builder, Scaled, a permit to test launch vehicles using rocket motors. Two spacecrafts, the Spaceship Two and WhiteNightTwo have been approved to fly free, carrying the full weight of a rocket motor on board--the motor and craft have previously been tested independently. According to Virgin, Spaceship Two is the first human-carrying vehicle to receive such approval. This news comes just as another historic moment for private space flight [5] winds down--over the last week, SpaceX's [6] Dragon capsule successfully launched [7] and docked with the ISS [8] in spac, becoming the first privately built rocket to do so. As of this morning, Dragon has undocked [9] and begun its journey back to Earth. 

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