On June 26, Virgin Galactic announced that the first commercial spaceflight with four passengers is set to take place as early as today, June 29.
The flight will commence at 10 PM (Hanoi time) on June 29 at the Spaceport America in New Mexico. The VMS Eve aircraft will carry the VSS Unity spaceplane, both piloted by two crew members, to an altitude of approximately 15,000 meters.
VSS Unity Spaceplane. (Photo: Virgin Galactic).
Following this, VMS Eve will release VSS Unity, allowing the spaceplane to ignite its rocket engine and continue ascending into suborbital space. The four passengers will experience a few minutes of weightlessness, witnessing the curvature of the Earth against the backdrop of dark space, before returning to Earth.
The four passengers include Pantaleone Carlucci (an engineer at the National Research Council of Italy), Colin Bennett (a spaceflight instructor at Virgin Galactic), Walter Villadei (Colonel of the Italian Air Force), and Angelo Landolfi (a physicist in the Italian Air Force).
The mission on June 29, named Galactic 01, aims to support Virtute 1 – a joint research project conducted by the Italian Air Force in collaboration with the National Research Council of Italy. The flight is expected to last 90 minutes, during which VSS Unity will serve as a suborbital science laboratory, providing an environment for the crew to interact with wearable devices. A total of 13 experiments (both automated and guided) will focus on the dynamics of fluid mechanics and sustainable materials for medical applications.
VSS Unity taking a selfie during the crewed flight on May 25. (Photo: Virgin Galactic).
VSS Unity has a maximum capacity of six passengers. The aircraft has completed five flights to suborbital space, the most recent occurring on May 25. If the Galactic 01 mission is successful, the duo of VMS Eve and VSS Unity will quickly prepare for their next flight. The Galactic 02 mission is expected to launch in early August, followed by monthly commercial flights, as announced by Virgin Galactic last week.
A ticket on VSS Unity costs up to $450,000. Virgin Galactic is competing with Blue Origin, the space travel company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin’s New Shepard has not launched since September 2022 due to an incident during an uncrewed research flight.
