Virgin Galactic is preparing to send its first commercial crew to suborbital altitudes as part of the private space tourism company’s first mission.
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The first mission, Galactic 01, is scheduled to launch Thursday at 11:00 a.m. ET from Spaceport America in New Mexico. Virgin Galactic will be broadcasting the launch live via its website and you can also follow the live action via the feed below.
WATCH LIVE: Galactic 01 Space Travel
For its first fully commercial mission, Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity suborbital spaceplane will carry a crew of three from the Italian Air Force and Italy’s National Research Council.
The crew will be commanded by Walter Villadei, an Italian Air Force colonel who previously trained at NASA as a backup pilot for Axiom Space’s second commercial mission to the International Space Station. Villadei is accompanied by Angelo Landolfi, a doctor and lieutenant colonel in the Italian Air Force, and Pantaleone Carlucci, a researcher at the National Research Council of Italy. Accompanying the Italian crew will be Colin Bennett, Virgin Galactic’s astronaut instructor, who will assess the flight experience during the mission.
The flight will last approximately 90 minutes, during which the Galactic 01 crew will conduct a series of suborbital science experiments. The mission will carry 13 payloads on board to conduct a variety of research on topics ranging from cosmic rays and renewable liquid biofuels to motion sickness and cognitive disorders during spaceflight.
“Virgin Galactic’s exploration missions will usher in a new era of repeatable and reliable access to space for governments and research organizations in the years to come,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement.
Founded by billionaire Richard Branson, the company announced earlier this month that it was open for suborbital operations on May 25 following the success of a suborbital test flight. Dubbed Unity 25, the test flight saw the VMS Eve carrier aircraft launch, carrying the Unity spaceplane under its wings before being deployed at an altitude of 44,500 feet (13,500 meters) above the ground. Once cleared, the spaceplane fired its rocket engines and lifted off to a maximum altitude of 54.2 miles (87 kilometers), which is just a few miles from the internationally recognized frontier of space known as the Karman Line.
This marked the first time the spaceplane had reached suborbital altitudes in nearly two years, paving the way for Virgin Galactic to officially launch its commercial flights. The follow-up mission, Galactic 02, is scheduled to start in early August. After that, the company plans to send a commercial crew to the edge of space each month at a cost of $450,000 per ticket.
Virgin Galactic’s opening of its space tourism business couldn’t come at a more unfortunate time after the submersible Titan imploded last week while ferrying billionaire tourists to the wreck of the Titanic. The private expedition into the depths of the ocean shed a light on the risks associated with extreme tourism and served as a warning to future space tourists looking to reach new heights as part of a growing space industry.
Branson’s own private company has a controversial history when it comes to the safety of its crew. In 2014, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo suffered an in-flight anomaly and crashed, resulting in the death of one of its pilots and the serious injury of another.
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