Virgin Galactic successfully carries passengers into space

The US company Virgin Galactic successfully completed its first commercial mission on June 29, carrying four passengers into suborbital space and back to Earth.

The latest flight was a major milestone for Virgin Galactic. The flight took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico at 9:30 p.m. on June 29, Hanoi time, and reached suborbital space after 58 minutes. After a few minutes of floating at an altitude of 85.1 km, the spaceplane returned to Spaceport America and landed at 10:42 p.m. the same day.

British businessman Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004. The company's first aircraft, the $10 million Ansari X Prize-winning SpaceShipOne, will be launched in October 2024 after flying into suborbital space twice in less than a week. Virgin Galactic is developing the SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane based on that private vehicle. SpaceShipTwo is launched into space by a carrier aircraft. After separating at an altitude of 15,000 meters, the plane fires its rocket motor and flies into space. Passengers on board will experience a few minutes of weightlessness and view the Earth against the black background of space before returning to the runway about 70 to 90 minutes after takeoff.

In December 2018, Virgin Galactic conducted a test flight of the latest version of SpaceShipTwo, the VSS Unity, which can carry six passengers and two pilots. Unity continued to fly in February 2019, May 2021, and July 2021. Virgin Galactic then took Unity and the VMS Eve transport aircraft offline for nearly two years for maintenance and upgrades, which would prepare the pair for higher-frequency commercial operations. The upgraded Eve and Unity took off again on May 23, flying into suborbital space on their fifth and final test flight. Following that success, Virgin Galactic announced that the pair of aircraft were ready to carry their first passengers on a mission called Galactic 01.

Galactic 01’s passengers include Italian Air Force Colonel Walter Villadei, Lieutenant Colonel Angelo Landolfi, and Pantaleone Carlucci, strategic project coordinator for the Italian National Research Council. The trio will carry a variety of scientific instruments on the flight. For example, Villadei will wear a biometric data suit that monitors how the body responds to microgravity, and Carlucci will carry a variety of body sensors for similar purposes. Landolfi will conduct experiments on mixing various solids and liquids in microgravity and determine how the flight affects cognition.

The fourth passenger in the Unity cabin is Colin Bennett, Virgin Galactic’s astronaut trainer, who will evaluate the flight experience of the three Italian passengers. Mike Masucci and Nicola Pecile also flew into space as commander and pilot of VSS Unity. Kelly Latimer and Jameel Janjua are the two pilots of VMS Eve.

Galactic 01 is just the first mission, if all goes according to plan. Virgin Galactic says it has already taken reservations from 800 passengers to fly on SpaceShipTwo at a price of $450,000 per seat. The second commercial flight, Galactic 02, is scheduled for early August.

Virgin Galactic is building a fleet of spaceplanes and transport aircraft. The new Delta-class spacecraft will be able to fly once a week. Once Delta is operational, expected in 2026, Virgin Galactic will be able to send passengers into space every day, from multiple locations around the world.

An Khang (According to Space )

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