Virgin Galactic completes its first commercial manned mission to space with 'Galactic 01'
Virgin Galactic successfully completed Galactic 01, its first commercial manned mission to the edge of space on 29 June 2023, marking a significant milestone for the space enterprise.
With a crew consisting of two Italian Air Force officers, an aerospace engineer, a Virgin Galactic instructor, and two pilots, the VSS Unity spaceplane launched from the New Mexico desert.
After floating for a few minutes at an altitude of 52.9 miles (85.1 kilometers), the spacecraft then returned to Spaceport America. The entire operation lasted for about 90 minutes. The spacecraft is propelled into space at nearly three times the speed of sound (Mach 3).
Virgin has become the latest commercial venture, along with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Virgin Galactic has said it has already booked a backlog of about 800 customers, charging most $250,000 to $450,000 per seat, and envisions building a fleet large enough to eventually accommodate 400 flights annually.
Virgin Galactic
It is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson in 2004. The US space agency, NASA, and the US Air Force define an astronaut as someone who has flown at least 80 km (50 mi) above Earth.
