The space tourism company is resuming flights at the end of May Virgin Galactic, as announced today. In the first mission after the restart, four of its employees will take part, while the commercial flights they will start at the end of June.
After years of waiting, the Unity 25 mission it will take place “at the end of May”, announced the Briton’s company Richard Branson, who participated in the last flight, about two years ago (July 2021). Since then, the company made modifications to the carrier aircraft and on her spacecraft to improve the performance of their engines and their ability to fly more often.
Unity 25 will be “the last evaluation of the space system and the astronaut experience before commercial flights resume in late June,” the company added. This will be the fifth flight that will reach space – as defined by the US military, at a height of 80 kilometers from the surface of the Earth.
Traveling in zero gravity it only takes a few minutes: the huge carrier aircraft takes off from a classic airport runway, then, after reaching a certain height, launches the spacecraft that it looks like a big private jet. The spacecraft then revs its engines until it exceeds 50 miles (80 km) and then descends smoothly to land on the same runway.
The flights are taking place from the Spaceport America base in the New Mexico desert. The passengers of the Unity 25 will be two men and two women: Beth Moses (participated in both previous flights), Jamila Gilbert, Chris Huey and Lew Macewho trained for years NASA astronauts. Two pilots will be at the helm of the aircraft and two more in the spacecraft.
According to APE, in the first commercial flight, called Galactic 01, members of the Italian Air Force will be on board. The development of the space program of Virgin Galactic significantly delayed, mainly due to an accident in 2014, where a pilot was killed. The company has already pre-sold 800 space tickets: 600 of these were sold between 2005-14at a price that ranged between $200,000-$250,000. The rest were sold more recently and their price reached 450,000 dollars the one.
The Virgin Galactic is a competitor to Blue Originof billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company, which has already sent 32 “tourists” into space. However, after an accident in 2022, during an unmanned flight, her rocket is stuck on the ground. Blue Origin promised in May that it would resume spaceflight “soon.”
Source: News Beast
With 6 years of experience, I bring to the table captivating and informative writing in the world news category. My expertise covers a range of industries, including tourism, technology, forex and stocks. From brief social media posts to in-depth articles, I am dedicated to creating compelling content for various platforms.
