Virgin Galactic's First Commercial Spaceflight Is A Success
Virgin Galactic, the private space tourism company, announced today that it has completed its first ever commercial space flight without a hitch. This mission, titled "Galactic 01," was crewed by six people total, including members of the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy.
While on the mission, crew members and passengers conducted 13 experiments, according to a Virgin Galactic press release. The experiments involved collecting medical data on the affects of gravity on the human body. Sensors embedded in Virgin Galactic's spacesuits, alongside dedicated "research payloads," collected data during the flight for each experiment conducted.
Michael Colglazier, the CEO of Virgin Galactic says: "Today, our team successfully flew six people and more than a dozen research payloads to space in VSS Unity (Virgin Galactic's space plane), 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."
In August, Virgin Galactic plans on launching the "Galactic 02" mission, and thereafter begin monthly flights.
To sub-orbit and beyond
The VSS Unity reached speeds of Mach 2.88 and an apogee (greatest distance of an orbiting object) of 52.9 miles. This successful flight comes after test flights resumed last month, nearly two years after no successful space missions were conducted. Virgin Galactic sets itself apart from more conventional space missions that utilize large multi-stage rockets like the ones used by NASA, and other private space companies like SpaceX.
Instead of rockets, the VSS Eve "Mothership" carries the VSS Unity space plane to a pre-determined altitude, in this case 44,500 feet. Then, VSS Unity is released and activates its engines and enters the sub-orbit reaches of the atmosphere. Then, it's able to conduct experiments and go on with the mission. After the mission is concluded, the VSS Unity lands at Spaceport New Mexico.
If you want to take part in a Virgin Galactic space mission, you can sign up, and it will set you back a cool $450,000.