Carrier aircraft VMS Eve is seen within the background shortly after releasing VSS Unity, which is firing its engine and acclerating in the course of the company’s fourth spaceflight test, Unity 22, carrying founder Richard Branson on July 11, 2021.
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic is targeting as early as May 25 for the launch of its next spaceflight, which marks each its first in nearly two years since flying founder Sir Richard Branson and its planned last step before starting business service.
Called Unity 25, the mission represents the corporate’s fifth spaceflight up to now, launching out of Spaceport America in Recent Mexico. It’s a “final assessment” flight, with six Virgin Galactic employees onboard for a brief trip to the sting of space.
The update comes after a longer-than-expected refurbishment period for the corporate’s spacecraft: A pair months after Branson’s flight, and following an FAA investigation right into a mishap during his trip, the corporate paused operations for what was intended to be an “eight to 10 months” process – but ended up taking nearly 16 months as an alternative.
Shares of Virgin Galactic rose nearly 7% Wednesday to shut at $4.50 apiece. The corporate reported first-quarter results earlier this month that exposed widening losses because it funds development and expansion of its spacecraft fleet.
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In-house pilots Mike Masucci and CJ Sturckow will fly spacecraft VSS Unity, while Jameel Janjua and Nicola Pecile will fly carrier aircraft VMS Eve. Within the passenger cabin will likely be Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses, in addition to astronaut instructor Luke Mays, senior engineering manager Christopher Huie, and senior manager of internal communications Jamila Gilbert.
Virgin Galactic’s approach to space tourism is to fly as much as an altitude of about 40,000 feet, release the spacecraft and fire its engine to climb past 80 kilometers (or about 262,000 feet) – the altitude the U.S. recognizes because the boundary of space.
Generally known as sub-orbital, one of these spaceflight gives passengers a pair minutes of weightless, unlike the for much longer, harder, and dearer orbital flights conducted by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. After flying on his own craft in 2021, Branson told CNBC he hopes to fly with SpaceX.
Depending on the final result and data gathered from Unity 25, the corporate goals to fly its first business mission in “late June.”
