Virgin Galactic achieves milestone with successful first commercial spaceflight

The Italian crew unfurled their national flag while floating inside the spacecraft. (Image source: https://www.virgingalactic.com/)

Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's space tourism company, achieved a critical milestone on June 29 when it completed its first commercial spaceflight. The Virgin Space Ship (VSS) Unity spacecraft, carrying the Galactic 01 crew, safely returned to land after a successful journey to space.

Carrier aircraft VMS Eve and spacecraft VSS Unity were used as vehicles for the Galactic 01 mission.

The carrier aircraft VMS Eve lifted off from Spaceport America, New Mexico at 8:30 a.m. MT, carrying the spacecraft VSS Unity to an altitude of roughly 44,500 feet, where it released Unity, which then activated its rocket motor engine to soar into suborbital space. Unity touched down on land at 9:42 a.m. MT.

Two vehicles, 8 people in all

A team of four crew members embarked aboard the VSS Unity spacecraft on the first commercial spaceflight. The crew had two astronauts from the Italian Air Force, an engineer-astronaut from the National Research Council of Italy, and an astronaut-instructor from Virgin Galactic, who was providing training for the Italian Air Force mission. The spacecraft was piloted by retired American Air Force commander Mike Masucci and former Italian Air Force pilot Nicola Pecile.

Carrier aircraft VMS Eve, responsible for transporting the spacecraft, was piloted by retired American Air Force commander Kelly Latimer and retired Canadian Air Force pilot Jameel Janjua.

Galactic 01 mission objectives

The VSS Unity also carried a total of 13 research payloads. The first commercial spaceflight of Virgin Galactic was solely dedicated to conducting a spectrum of research spanning from the bio-medical field, and thermo food dynamics, to the development of innovative sustainable materials in microgravity conditions.

During the flight, the Italian crew had the opportunity to unfurl their nation's flag while floating inside the spacecraft.

Welcome back to Earth, #Galactic01! Our pilots, crew and spaceship have landed smoothly at @Spaceport_NM. pic.twitter.com/f8YQowQN2x

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) June 29, 2023

The completion of the Galactic 01 mission comes at a critical time for Virgin Galactic, as the Virgin Group company competes with two other prominent US companies, SpaceX led by Elon Musk and Blue Origin led by Jeff Bezos, both of which already flew private passengers to space.

Beginning of a new era to access space, says CEO

Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier on the successful completion of Galactic 01 mission said the first commercial spaceflight marks the beginning of a new era of consistent chances for private passengers and researchers to reach space.

"Today, our team successfully flew six people and more than a dozen research payloads to space in VSS Unity, our unique, suborbital science lab. 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. 'Galactic 02,' our first spaceflight with private astronauts, is planned for August and we expect VSS Unity to continue with monthly space missions while we simultaneously work to scale our future spaceship fleet for a global audience," Colglazier through a statement said.

The safe return of the spaceflight to earth gives hope for the company to now fly reportedly hundreds of people who are already in waitlist.

Virgic Galactic announcing the start of the commercial spaceflight service on June 15 this year stated that its second commercial spaceflight Galactic 02 will follow in early August 2023, with monthly spaceflights expected thereafter.

Completed final test flight on May 25

Virgin Galactic’s first commercial spaceflight service comes after the successful completion of its final spaceflight test, Unity 25 mission, on May 25 this year. Unity until now has five suborbital test flights under its belt. Prior to the Unity 25 mission, the company's founder Richard Branson and a crew flew to space aboard the Unity 22 mission in July 2021.