Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial mission following the successful sub-orbital journey of VSS Unity. The spacecraft reached an altitude of around 53 miles carrying two Italian air force colonels and an aerospace engineer plus crew. <\/p>\n
The 'Galactic 01' mission took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico at 08:30 on June 29th carrying its first paying customers. The craft's VMS Eve mothership reached an altitude of 45,000ft before VSS Unity separated and engaged its rocket systems to exit the Earth's atmosphere. <\/p>\n
The three customers - Walter Villadei, Angelo Landolfi, and Pantaleone Carlucci - were all members of the Italian Air Force on a research mission. The craft was piloted by Michael Masucci and Nicola Pecile, accompanied by Virgin Galactic instructor Colin Bennett. <\/p>\n
Crew commander Col. Walter Villadei announced upon completion of the roughly 90-minute filght, <\/p>\n
\"Mission accomplished. We accomplished all our experiments. Its a very important achievement for us.\" <\/p>\n
Virgin Galactic can now consider itself an official player in the lucrative sub-orbital tourism industry, something almost two decades in the making since its launch in 2004. Its only direct competitor at the moment is Blue Origin - founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos - which has already carried over 30 paying customers into space. However, following an accident last September during an unmanned mission, Blue Origin has suspended flights but plans to resume operations soon. <\/p>\n
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement, <\/p>\n
\"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.\" <\/p>\n
During the journey, researchers conducted various data-gathering experiments - of particular importance was Unity's extended window of microgravity conditions, over three minutes to be exact. As explained by Virgin Galactic, the research will \"examine the biomedicine thermo-fluid dynamics, and the development of innovative and sustainable materials in microgravity conditions.\" <\/p>\n
As reported by Albuquerque Journal, Villadei added, <\/p>\n
\"International opportunities for microgravity research are limited to only 20 to 30 seconds on rockets, or six months on the International Space Station. Theres nothing in between. [VSS Unity] expands the possibilities for the research community.\" <\/p>\n
One of the researchers wore a 'Spacewear Smart Flight Suit 1', an advanced flight suit that can withstand over 6G of acceleration and is fitted with a device to measure biometric data. <\/p>\n
The spacecraft carried a total of 13 research payloads onboard with various objectives, including: <\/p>\n
The company's next commercial spaceflight - Galactic 02 - is scheduled for August and will be the first spaceflight carrying private paying customers. As with Galactic 01, the second August mission can be watched via live stream on the Virgin Galactic website. <\/p>\n
Should Galactic 02 prove a success, Virgin Galactic aims to operate a commercial spaceflight every month thereafter. This week's successful spaceflight is good news for Virgin Group, which suffered a setback in January when now-defunct Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne mission failed. <\/p>\n
Are you happy to see Virgin Galactic complete its first revenue spaceflight? Do you think the company will manage to operate one spaceflight a month by the end of this year? Let us know in the comments. <\/p>\n
Source: Albuquerque Journal <\/p>\n
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