This is the beginning of a new era. Virgin Galactic completed a successful commercial space mission

On Thursday after 4.30 pm, the first commercial space mission of Virgin Galactic was launched. The company has performed orbital flights before, but this is the first time such a pleasure has been “purchased” – 800 people are already waiting in line who have bought a ticket for the VSS Unity spaceship.

Virgin Galactic organized the first commercial flight into space

The entire flight lasted 72 minutes. First, the ship was lifted to an altitude of 13.6 km, where the VSS Unity engines were started, which took the crew into space and allowed them to break away from the Earth for 85 km. Americans consider the height to be 50 miles (80.5 km) abroad, but according to the international definition it is 100 km.

On board the vessel, piloted by two pilots (Mike Masucci and Nicola Pecile), there were four passengers: Engineer Pantaleone Carlucci from the National Research Center of Italy, Colonel Walter Villadei from the Italian Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel Angelo Landolfi, who is a doctor in the Italian Air Force, and Colin Bennett, an astronaut instructor working for Virgin Galactic. Although the flight was commercial, it was not a tourist expedition. The flight was financed by the Italian Air Force, whose aim was to study the impact of microgravity conditions on the behavior of the human body and human cognitive abilities.

Virgin Galactic Historical Expedition. “The Beginning of a New Era”

Founded in 2004 by Sir Richard Branson, it took almost 20 years to realize the vision of commercial spaceflight. Sam Branson flew into orbit in 2021, but Multimillionaire Denis Tito then paid $ 20 million, thanks to which he flew to the International Space Station. However, the successful mission of VSS Unity means that such commercial flights can be organized on a regular basis, and not just on an exceptional basis.

This historic expedition was our first commercial flight and our first commercial research mission, ushering in a new era of repeatable and reliable access to space for private passengers and researchers

said Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier. However, the road to this place was bumpy. 2014 was particularly difficult when the Enterprise, Virgin Galactic’s first prototype spacecraft, disintegrated during testing, and one of its pilots died in the accident.

There will be more commercial missions on VSS Unity. How much will space tourists pay?

It was the first in a series of Virgin Galactic commercial missions (hence the name Galactic 01). As part of the next ones (the next one is planned for August) the first people who decided to pay a small fortune for their flight are to reach the border of space for tourist purposes. The company sells tickets for 450,000. dollars (PLN 1.84 million) per person. Although the planned date of the company’s first commercial flight was known a long time ago, Virgin Galactic has now received a huge wave of criticism – primarily in social media – for the not very favorable timing of the mission. Just a week ago, the remains of the Titan submarine were found at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after it imploded during a tourist cruise near the wreck of the Titanic.

The next missions are to take place every month. Current technology does not allow for more frequent flights, but this will change in 2026, when a new class of spacecraft will be put into service. These will allow flights into space every week. VSS Unity is essentially a suborbital ship, which means it can go into orbit, but it can’t go around the globe. The unit is designed so that for a few minutes you can experience the state of weightlessness and admire our planet from space.