Virgin Galactic space plane makes its first commercial flight
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has made its first commercial flight to the edge of space, joining a small club of companies offering private space flights
By Leah Crane and Alex Wilkins
29 June 2023
The VSS Unity space plane flying over New Mexico in 2020
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic launched its first commercial flight to the edge of space with a crew of six astronauts on 29 June.
Richard Branson’s space firm has now joined a small club of companies, along with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, that can ferry paying customers to space.
The VSS Unity, a rocket-powered spaceplane, was strapped to a carrier plane for takeoff from Truth or Consequences in New Mexico. The mission, called Galactic 01, didn’t carry space tourists, but rather two members of the Italian Air Force and a research engineer.
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The three of them used the flight to collect scientific information in microgravity, including biometric data, cognitive data and how well certain biomedically relevant liquids and solids mix. They also used the experience as training for potential future missions to the International Space Station. The passengers were joined by two pilots and a flight engineer from Virgin Galactic.
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Once the carrier vehicle reached an altitude of around 15 kilometres, it released the VSS Unity, which activated its rocket engine for a steep climb to 80 kilometres above Earth, travelling at around three times the speed of sound. The crew then experienced 5 minutes of weightlessness before descending back to Earth.
