First paying customers are flown into space by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic

A long-awaited accomplishment that puts Virgin Galactic back on track in the developing private spaceflight industry was made possible by the company’s successful voyage of its first paying clients to the ultimate frontier on Thursday.

Italian Air Force personnel enjoyed a few minutes of weightlessness at 52.9 miles (85.1 kilometers) above sea level while hoisting their country’s flag and gazing out windows at the curvature of Earth.

Colonel Walter Villadei said, “It was a beautiful ride,” adding that his favorite part was seeing the contrast between the darkness of space and the globe below.

Around 8:30 am local time (1430 GMT), a massive, twin-fuselage “mothership” aircraft lifted off from a runway at Spaceport America, New Mexico, officially starting the Galactic 01 mission.

The rocket-powered VSS Unity was launched from the carrier aircraft when it had reached a high altitude and around 40 minutes later it was traveling at about Mach 3.

NASA and the US Air Force define the edge of space as 50 miles, however the Karman Line, the globally accepted frontier, is 62 miles high.

Pantaleone Carlucci of the Italian National Research Council, Lieutenant Colonel Angelo Landolfi of the Italian Air Force, and Colin Bennett of Virgin Galactic shared a cabin with Villadei.

Both the spacecraft and the transport aircraft had two pilots each.

A broadcast subsequently revealed that Unity had safely returned to Earth.

In a test trip intended to herald in a new age of profitable space tourism, Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson traveled to space nearly two years prior to this flight.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly grounded the firm after discovering that Virgin Galactic failed to report the “mishap” in a timely manner and that the Branson aircraft had diverted from its allotted area.

Later, lab testing showed that several of the materials used in the company’s cars had not reached the acceptable strength margins, requiring fleet improvements.

After a successful test in May, the corporation resumed spaceflight, clearing the path for Thursday’s trip. Before Thursday’s commercial launch, it completed a total of five test flights.

– REGULAR FLIGHTS

The Galactic 01 crew was charged with carrying out 13 guided and unguided experiments as well as gathering information on their suits and cabin sensors.

The radiation levels in the little-studied mesosphere were measured, as well as the mixing of certain liquids and solids under microgravity.

Villadei said that there are presently only two ways for scientists to do study in microgravity: six-month journeys to the International Space Station or parabolic flights, during which passengers experience brief weightlessness.

Thus, he added, Virgin Galactic provides a “gap filler,” and the spaceplane’s size allowed for greater experiments than could be accommodated aboard a rocket.

subsequently its founding in 2004, Virgin Galactic has sold around 800 tickets for seats on upcoming commercial flights, with 600 going for $200,000 to $250,000 between 2005 and 2014 and 200 going for $450,000 apiece subsequently.

The company’s program experienced a calamity in 2014 when a spaceplane on a test flight broke apart halfway, killing the copilot and critically wounding the pilot. Movie stars and celebrities were among the first to purchase tickets.

Now, the business is considering the future. After Galactic 02, which is scheduled for August, it intends to do monthly space jumps.

BEZOS, MUSK, AND BRANSON

With billionaire Jeff Bezos’s business, Blue Origin, which has previously sent 32 passengers into space using a vertical lift-off rocket, Virgin Galactic competes in the “suborbital” space tourism market.

Blue Origin’s rocket has been halted after a mishap in September 2022 during an unmanned launch. In March, the corporation said that spaceflight will shortly resume.

In the meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has teamed up with associate businesses to transport paying clients farther into Earth orbit or to the International Space Station.

However, renting a SpaceX rocket is a considerably more expensive option. According to reports, fares for combined SpaceX-Axiom Space trips to the ISS cost tens of millions of dollars.