Science has taken a gigantic step in space research. A new private company has achieved a commercial flight that crosses the borders of the Earth. Virgin Galactic successfully completed the Galactic 01 mission, this Thursday, June 29, 2023.
“When we started with Virgin Galactic , we had a wild dream: to make commercial space travel a reality. Today, Virgin Galactic completed its maiden commercial spaceflight and its second spaceflight in two months. What a moment”, declared Richard Branson, CEO of the company that joins space exploration, officially.
The Galactic 01 mission carried 13 research payloads and three crew members from the Italian Air Force and the Italian National Research Council. “Congratulations to the entire team,” Branson said in a Virgin Galactic statement.
“It’s wonderful to see Virgin Galactic’s pioneering research experiments in space, showcasing VSS Unity’s capabilities to transform itself into a science lab,” he added.
The objective of the mission, clearly commercial, was for scientists to record data to analyze microgravity. The spacecraft in which the flight was completed is called VSS Unity, formerly known as SpaceShipTwo. VSS stands for “Virgin Space Ship”. The design of the ship is based on the previous prototype called VSS Enterprise.
Virgin Galactic’s system is made up of two main elements: the spacecraft VSS Unity and the mothership VMS Eve (formerly known as WhiteKnightTwo). VMS stands for Virgin Mother Ship. The Eve mothership is designed to take VSS Unity to an altitude of approximately 15 kilometers (50,000 feet), where the Unity spacecraft detaches and fires its engine to continue its ascent into space.
“This is just the beginning. Virgin Galactic will now begin post-flight inspections and analysis in preparation for its next commercial space mission, Galactic 02. That will be a very special moment, as the team brings its unique expertise to private astronauts. That mission is scheduled for August, with Virgin Galactic planning monthly flights into space thereafter,” the company’s executives said.