Virgin Galactic took its first clients into space on Thursday, a milestone for the company of billionaire Richard Branson, which should allow it to relaunch itself in the long-awaited sector of space tourism, where it lags behind the competition.
The company, founded in 2004, has already been to space five times, but only with crew on board, unlike Blue Origin, which has already taken several customers beyond the last designated frontier.
The Virgin Galactic spacecraft, VSS Unity, carried four passengers on Thursday, namely two Italian Air Force officers, an engineer from Italy’s National Research Council and an employee of the company, in addition to the two pilots.
The vehicle exceeded 80 kilometers in altitude, the limit that marks the beginning of space, according to the US military. “Welcome to space, astronauts,” Sirisha Bandla, a Virgin Galactic employee who already made the trip in 2021, welcomed on Terra.
The cabin has an Italian flag attached.
“It was an unforgettable experience,” said Colonel Walter Villadei at a press conference, describing the contrast between black space and Earth. Admiring this view was “truly the best moment,” he said.
The mission, called Galactic 01, departed from the Spaceport America base in the New Mexico desert.
A huge transport plane took off at 08:30 local time from a classic runway. About an hour later, at a height of 15 kilometers, a vehicle fell, an airplane, similar to a private jet.
He started the engine and accelerated vertically until reaching 85 kilometers of altitude. Minutes later, it descended gliding until it landed on the same runway.
Richard Branson himself had made this brief trip in July 2021. Subsequently, the North American Aviation Agency (FAA) suspended the company’s flights to investigate a deviation in trajectory during this very difficult flight. mediated at that time.
Virgin Galactic subsequently announced a pause in its operations to upgrade an engine, which lasted longer than announced.
In May, the company carried out its last test flight before commercial operations.
These have been expected for years. Some 800 customers have already bought tickets, priced between $200,000 and $250,000 per passenger, which has already risen to $450,000.
Virgin Galactic’s space program is years behind schedule, due in particular to a 2014 accident that killed a police officer.
Today’s flight was presented as a scientific vocation, with several experiments carried out on board.
The new platform made available by Virgin Galactic fills a gap in research, Walter Villadei said.
“If there are possibilities of flying in microgravity today for the international community, it can be done for a few seconds in parabolic flights (…), or in the International Space Station, for six months,” he recalled. “There is nothing in between.”
After a second mission (Galactic 02) scheduled for August, Virgin Galactic promises space flights every month.
The company competes with that of billionaire Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin, which also proposes short suborbitals and has already sent 32 people into space, but more than 100 kilometers, the so-called Karman line, which marks the beginning of space. according to the international convention.
But, after an accident in September 2022, during an empty flight, the rocket fell to the ground. Blue Origin promised in March to resume spaceflight “soon.”
Billionaire Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, has also carried out or participated in space tourism missions, but the proposed experience is very different because each time they last several days.
Source: TSF
