The space tourism company Virgin Galactic announced on Monday the return of its flights into space, with a mission at the end of May in which four company employees will travel, and the start of commercial flights at the end of June, after years of wait. The Unity 25 mission will take place “at the end of May”, said the company founded by Briton Richard Branson, who himself boarded the last space flight almost two years ago (July 2021).
Since then, the company has made modifications to its aircraft carrier and vessel, with the goal of improving the machines’ performance and their ability to fly more frequently. Unity 25 will be “the final evaluation of the complete space system and astronaut experience before commercial flight service opens at the end of June,” Virgin Galactic said.
Italian Air Force passengers for the first commercial flight
Unity 25 should be the fifth flight to reach space (as defined by the US military, above 50 miles in altitude). The proposed trip offers just a few minutes in weightlessness: a huge transport plane takes off from a conventional runway and then drops the vessel, which looks like a large private jet, at altitude.
Then it starts its engine until it exceeds 80 kilometers of altitude, before gliding down and landing on the same runway. The flights take place from the base of Spaceport America, in the desert of New Mexico. The Unity 25 crew will consist of two women and two men: Beth Moses, (who has been on two previous space flights), Jamila Gilbert, Chris Huie, and Luke Mays (who spent several years training astronauts at NASA). There are also two pilots at the controls of the transport plane, and two others in the ship.
The first commercial flight, called Galactic 01, will carry passengers from the Italian Air Force. Virgin Galactic’s space program has suffered years of delays, notably from a 2014 accident that killed a pilot. The company has already pre-sold some 800 tickets to the space: 600 between 2005 and 2014, priced between $200,000 and $250,000, and 200 more in recent years, for $450,000 each.
Virgin Galactic competes with billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, which also offers short suborbital flights and has already sent 32 people into space. But since a September 2022 crash during a drone flight, his rocket has been grounded. Blue Origin promised in March to resume spaceflight “soon.”
Source: BFM TV
