First Commercial Spaceflight Completed by Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial spaceflight, Galactic 01, on Thursday. The first commercial spaceflight hosted three representatives from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy.
"I am beyond proud to be a part of this historic spaceflight. 'Galactic 01 is Italy's first commercial suborbital research spaceflight, and an amazing achievement."
Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei
Also on board the flight were 13 scientific payloads. It was the company's second successful flight in two months.
The flight departed from Spaceport America at 8:30 am MDT. The Unity spacecraft was released from VMS Eve at an altitude of 44,500 feet, and reached an apogee of 52.9 miles. Landing back at Spaceport America occurred at 9:42 am MDT.
The mission had three main objectives:
To conduct 12 human-tended and autonomous experiments to examine the biomedical field, thermo-fluid dynamics and the development of innovative and sustainable materials in microgravity conditions.
To evaluate and measure hypergravity to microgravity transition effects on the human body, including both biological and physical data properties
To collect data through wearable research payloads and sensors, and by autonomous research payloads mounted in the cabin on Virgin Galactic's payload rack system
First Commercial Spaceflight Begins a Planned Accelerated Launch Cadence
"Today, our team successfully flew six people and more than a dozen research payloads to space in VSS Unity," said Michael Colglazer, CEO of Virgin Galactic. 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 researchers. 'Galactic 02', our first spaceflight with private astronauts, is planned for August."
"I am beyond proud to be a part of this historic spaceflight. 'Galactic 01 is Italy's first commercial suborbital research spaceflight, and an amazing achievement made possible thanks to the long-lasting collaboration between the Italian Air Force and the National Research council of Italy," said Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei. "This groundbreaking collaboration propels Italy into the new era of commercial spaceflight as a pathfinder, fostering innovation and paving the way for further technological enhancement in this strategic domain."
Following the Galactic 02 flight in August, Virgin Galactic plans monthly flight to space going forward.
(Source: Virgin Galactic news release. Image provided)