If all goes as planned, Virgin Galactic’s first commercial spaceflight will launch this month. The company, which is part of billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, announced on Thursday (June 15th) that it has set a launch window from June 27 to June 30 for its first operational flight, which it calls Galactic 01.

“Galactic 01, a research mission, will carry three crew members from the Italian Air Force and the Italian National Research Council to conduct microgravity research,” Virgin Galactic said Thursday afternoon. Said.

“Spaceflight with science payloads on board will demonstrate the value and power of the unique suborbital science lab offered by Virgin Galactic.”

Virgin Galactic’s suborbital space system consists of two elements: the launch vehicle, known as VMS Eve, and the six-passenger, twin-pilot SpaceShipTwo spacecraft called VSS Unity. Eve lifts off the runway with Unity under her wings and then drops the spacecraft to an altitude of about 50,000 feet (15,000 meters). Unity then fires its onboard rocket engine, providing energy to suborbital space.

Passengers on the space plane will be weightless for a few minutes and will be able to see our planet against the background of the darkness of space. Unity then returns to Earth for an unpowered runway landing.

Unity has conducted five test missions to suborbital space, with the last on May 25. This latest flight was Virgin Galactic’s first spacewalk since July 2021; The company has temporarily grounded Unity and Eve for maintenance and upgrades that prepare both vehicles for the increased pace of commercial service flights.

And Unity and Eve are planning to fly again on a second operational flight, the Galactic 02, shortly after their commercial debut, Virgin Galactic said, “it’s scheduled for early August, followed by monthly commercial flights.” These missions will launch from Spaceport America in New Mexico, Virgin Galactic’s commercial hub. If you want to reserve a seat, you will need a lot of money: a ticket to board VSS Unity currently costs $450,000.

It will be much more likely to fly in the not-too-distant future, as Virgin Galactic has built a fleet of new Delta-class spaceplanes that the company says can launch once a week. According to Virgin Galactic, these new spaceships will be fully operational in 2026.

Virgin Galactic isn’t the only company taking customers into suborbital space; Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin is also doing this with its New Shepard vehicle. The new Shepard has not been launched since September 2022, when it experienced an anomaly during an unmanned research flight. Source