Space tourism company Virgin Galactic on Monday announced the return of flights to space with a mission in late May involving four of the company’s employees and the start of commercial flights in late June after years of waiting.
The Unity 25 mission will take place “at the end of May”, said the company founded by British Richard Branson, who himself boarded the last space flight almost two years ago (July 2021).
Since then, the company has made modifications to its carrier aircraft and ship to improve the machines’ performance and their ability to fly more frequently.
Unity 25 will be “the definitive assessment of the entire space system and astronaut experience before commercial flight service opens in late June,” Virgin Galactic said.
Unity 25 must be the fifth flight to reach space (above 80 kilometers altitude as defined by the American Army).
The proposed journey offers just minutes in zero gravity: a giant carrier plane takes off from a conventional runway, dropping the ship, which looks like a large private jet, at altitude.
It then turns on its engine until it surpasses 50 miles (80 kilometers) in altitude before gliding down and landing on the same runway.
Flights will operate from Spaceport America’s base in the New Mexico desert.
The Unity 25 crew will consist of two women and two men: Beth Moses (who has served on two previous spaceflights), Jamila Gilbert, Chris Huie and Luke Mays (who spent several years training astronauts for NASA).
Two pilots are also at the controls of the carrier aircraft, and two more in the ship.
The first commercial flight, named Galactic 01, will be operated with Italian Air Force passengers.
Virgin Galactic’s space program has suffered years of delays, most notably due to an accident in 2014 that killed a pilot.
The company has already pre-sold around 800 tickets for Space: 600 between 2005 and 2014 priced between $200,000 and $250,000, and another 200 in the last few years for $450,000 each.
Virgin Galactic competes with billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin, which also offers short suborbital flights and has already sent 32 people into space.
But since an accident in September 2022 during an unmanned flight, his rocket has been on the ground. Blue Origin vowed in March to resume spaceflights “soon.”