Space tourism race: Virgin Galactic gears up for its first commercial spaceflight launch on June 29

Virgin Galactic has stated that the first commercial spaceflight, from takeoff to landing, is expected to have a duration of 90 minutes. (Image source: www.virgin.com)

Virgin Galactic is all set to launch its first commercial spaceflight on June 29. The space tourism company's 'Galactic 01' will transport a team of four crew members, consisting of three individuals from the Italian Air Force and one representative from the National Research Council of Italy. The focus of this dedicated research mission will be to conduct a range of suborbital science experiments.

The crew members embarking on the suborbital space journey aboard the Virgin Space Ship (VSS) Unity are Col. Walter Villadei from the Italian Air Force, Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi, a physician from the Italian Air Force, Pantaleone Carlucci, an engineer from the National Research Council of Italy, and Colin Bennett, Virgin Galactic's Astronaut Instructor responsible for training the Italian Air Force mission. Mike Masucci and Nicola Pecile will pilot the VSS Unity. Kelly Latimer and Jameel Janjua will fly the carrier plane, VMS Eve.

Richard Branson's company has stated that the first commercial spaceflight, from takeoff to landing, is expected to have a duration of 90 minutes. According to Virgin Galactic's website, the cabin of VSS Unity will be converted into a suborbital science laboratory, facilitating the presence of rack-mounted payloads and enabling the crew to interact with wearable payloads during the mission.

Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic, said: "Galactic 01 is our first commercial spaceflight, and we’re honored to have been selected by the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council to support their first space research mission, ‘Virtute 1’. Virgin Galactic’s research missions will usher in a new era of repeatable and reliable access to space for government and research institutions for years to come."

The company in its statement said by "carrying scientific payloads for its first-ever commercial spaceflight will showcase the value and power of the unique suborbital science lab that Virgin Galactic offers."

The main objective of the mission is to conduct a series of 13 experiments, both human-tended and autonomous, which examine biomedicine thermo-fluid dynamics, and the development of innovative and sustainable materials in microgravity conditions.

The first commercial spaceflight of Virgin Galactic's reusable space plane, Virgin Space Ship (VSS) Unity, is scheduled for launch on June 29 from its Gateway facility at Spaceport America in New Mexico at 9:00 AM MDT/11:00 AM EDT/20:30 IST. Virgin Galactic has announced a global livestream of the spaceflight launch, accessible at VirginGalactic.com.

VSS Unity takes off from the runway with carrier aircraft VMS Eve beneath. Upon reaching an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet (15,000 meters), Unity disengages from Eve, ignites its rocket motor and ascends to suborbital space.

Virgin Galactic announced the launch of commercial spaceflight service on June 16, this year, following the successful completion of the Unity 25 spaceflight test on May 25, 2023, the final assessment of the entire spaceflight system and astronaut experience.

Virgin Galactic, headquartered in California and operating from New Mexico, has announced that the second commercial spaceflight, named 'Galactic 02' is scheduled to take place in early August 2023. Following this, the company plans to send commercial spaceflights as part of its regular operations.

Virgin Galactic, founded in 2004, wishes to launch commercial space flights for people. Offering suborbital trips to anyone with enough money, Virgin Galactic competes in the space tourism race with Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

A seat on the company's VSS Unity space plane costs $450,000 right now.

Hundreds of people are already on the waitlist.