Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity completes first commercial spaceflight
The Italian crew unfurled the flag of Italy inside the cabin of VSS Unity during their brief time in space. Credit: Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo has flown with paying passengers for the first time on its inaugural commercial suborbital spaceflight.
The company has flown passengers before, the most recent in July 2021 and May 2023 — both in VSS Unity, carried to altitude by the mothership VMS Eve aircraft. But those have been to evaluate passenger comfort and experience.
Moments after being dropped from the VMS Eve mothership, VSS Unity ignites its engine to begin propelling itself toward space. Credit: Virgin Galactic
This mission, known as Galactic 01, took place at Spaceport America in New Mexico, located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of the town of Truth or Consequences. This commercial suborbital flight was a science mission for the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy.
Aboard were Col. Walter Villadei and Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi of the Italian Air Force and Pantaleone Carlucci representing the National Research Council of Italy.
With them was Virgin Galactic Astronaut Instructor Colin Bennett. He first flew aboard Unity in July 2021 during the first fully crewed mission. Company owner Richard Branson was also on that mission.
Manually flying Unity was Commander Mike Masucci and Pilot Nicola Pecile. This was their fourth and first flights, respectively.
For Galactic 01, the VMS Eve carrier aircraft took off at 10:30 a.m. EDT and climbed to the spacecraft’s release altitude of 44,500 feet (13,500 meters). Just before 11:30 a.m. EDT, VSS Unity was dropped. Moments later, its hybrid engine ignited to perform a one-minute burn to send the vehicle on a trajectory above the atmosphere.
The passenger crew of Galactic 01. Credit: Virgin Galactic
The maximum altitude reached was 52.9 miles (85.1 kilometers), which is enough to qualify as a spaceflight by the United States Air Force and NASA. However, it is still about 9.2 miles (14.8 kilometers) shy of the internationally recognized boundary of space at 62 miles (100 kilometers).
During the coast period, the crew experienced several minutes of weightlessness and began to perform their experiments. In total, 13 research payloads were aboard in a rack at the rear of the crew cabin.
VSS Unity with Earth in the background. The vehicle’s wings can be seen in their “feathering” positing as it begins falling back toward the planet. Credit: Virgin Galactic
But as the saying goes, time flies when you’re having fun.
Just as the crew was completing its experiments, the craft began its descent with its wings positioned in the upright position to ease and control itself back into the atmosphere, much like a shuttlecock in flight.
Once back in the lower atmosphere, the wings were returned to flight orientation and the ship became a glider. A few minutes later, the six occupants were back on the ground having touched down on the runway at Spaceport America at 11:42 a.m. EDT.
After a post-flight analysis, Virgin Galactic said it will begin preparing the vehicle for its next suborbital spaceflight, Galactic 02. The company hopes to fly it by August with monthly flights beginning thereafter.
“Today, our team successfully flew six people and more than a dozen research payloads to space in VSS Unity, our unique suborbital science lab,” said Michael Colglazier, the CEO of Virgin Galactic, in a company statement. “This historic flight was our first commercial flight and our first dedicated commercial research mission — ushering in a new era of repeatable and reliable access to space for private passengers and researchers.”
Video courtesy of Virgin Galactic
Derek Richardson
Derek Richardson has a degree in mass media, with an emphasis in contemporary journalism, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. While at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also has a website about human spaceflight called Orbital Velocity. You can find him on twitter @TheSpaceWriter.
