Virgin Galactic’s first commercial spaceflight “Galactic 01” went off without a hitch on Thursday.
The company’s VSS Unity spaceship and its carrier mothership VMS Eve took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico at about 8:30 a.m. local time and safely landed around 90 minutes later.
The suborbital trip marks the first time Virgin Galactic has flown paying passengers. The four passengers onboard included colonel Walter Villadei and lieutenant colonel Angelo Landolfi of the Italian air force, engineer Pantaleone Carlucci of Italy’s national research council, and Virgin Galactic’s lead astronaut instructor Colin Bennett.
Virgin Galactic
There were also two pilots on the respective ships: The co-pilots of Eve were commander Kelly Latimer and pilot Jameel Janjua, while the co-pilots of Unity were commander Mike Masucci and pilot Nicola Pecile.
The three Italians conducted 13 scientific research experiments throughout the stages of flight. They also found time to proudly hoist the Italian flag during the mission.
As for the flight itself, Eve took off seamlessly from the runway with Unity attached underneath. After a mated climb, the two ships separated at roughly 50,000 feet (15,000 meters). The crew then lit the rocket motor and Unity moved from horizontal to vertical by completing a “gamma turn.” It then powered on upward toward space.
Virgin Galactic
The spaceship reached a maximum speed of Mach 2.88 (2,043 mph) and a peak altitude of about 279,000 feet (52.8 miles). Although there’s no universally agreed upon point at which space begins, the “edge” is generally considered to lie somewhere between 50 and 62 miles above Earth’s surface. Unity then began re-entry before gliding back to the runway.
Virgin Galactic
The beginning of Virgin Galactic’s commercial service comes after years of delays and setbacks. Indeed, the company has a backlog of about 800 passengers who paid between US$200,000 (HK$1.56 million) and US$250,000 (HK$1.95 million) for a seat over a decade ago, as reported by CNBC. The tickets are now priced at US$450,000 apiece (HK$3.53 million).
Following the success of Galactic 01, the company plans to carry out its second mission as soon as August. It then hopes to begin flying Unity once a month.
