Virgin Galactic launched its first-ever commercial space flight from Spaceport America in New Mexico Thursday (June 29).
In a statement, the company confirmed the next flight, to be dubbed "Galactic 02", would be scheduled in August.
"Galactic 01'...carried 13 research payloads and three crew members from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy to conduct scientific experiments in a microgravity environment," the company said.
Aboard the SpaceShipTwo craft named VSS Unity were pilots Mike Masucci (spacecraft commander) and Nicola Pecile (pilot), Italian Air Force participants Col. Walter Villadei (mission lead) and Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi (flight surgeon), as well as Pantaleone Carlucci from the National Research Council of Italy (flight engineer) and Virgin Galactic flight trainer Colin Bennett (mission specialist), who previously flew with Virgin Group boss Richard Branson in 2021. Piloting the mothership VMS Eve were Kelly Latimer (commander) and Jameel Janjua (pilot).
The participation of Villadei and Landolfi was also in line with the centennial anniversary of the Italian Air Force, which funded the suborbital flight. Villadei was seen waving the Italian flag when the Unity reached its apogee of about 51 miles (82 km) from the surface of the earth. The altitude meant everyone aboard had reached space as defined by US authorities but fell short of the international definition of 62 miles (100 km), which the rest of the world calls the Karman Line.
Villadei is scheduled to travel on a future Axiom Space mission aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon.
How the Flight Happened
The Unity was docked to Eve when it took off at around 08:30 local time (16:00 UTC). Once the mothership and space plane was at the target altitude, the Unity was released before firing its single rocket engine while soaring towards the edge of space at nearly Mach 3.
Upon reaching apogee, Villadei unstrapped from his seat and attended to the research payload aboard before displaying an Italian flag in front of a camera.
With the success of the flight dubbed as Galactic 01, Virgin Galactic looks forward to a monthly cadence in flying paying passengers, with the next flight scheduled for August, with tickets to a seat aboard the Unity costing $450,000 each. The flight was also the best feat the company made after it lost the VSS Enterprise and one of its two pilots, as well as the risks discovered in the aftermath of Unity 25 in 2021, the flight where Bennett and Branson were passengers.
