Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company founded by Richard Branson, is finally set to begin commercial spaceflights. The first paying customers for these flights are a three-member crew from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy, accompanied by a Virgin Galactic astronaut instructor. The mission, called Galactic 01, will last 90 minutes and will include several suborbital science experiments.
The flight will take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico and will be livestreamed on Virgin Galactic’s website. This milestone comes almost two years after Branson’s test flight to space, which was meant to kickstart the era of space tourism. However, the company faced setbacks, including a brief grounding by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) due to a deviation from assigned airspace and failure to communicate the incident properly.
The company also discovered that certain materials used in its vehicles did not meet required strength margins, leading to necessary upgrades. However, Virgin Galactic successfully completed a test flight in May, leading to the resumption of spaceflights.
Virgin Galactic’s spaceflights involve a “mothership” aircraft with two pilots that carries a rocket-powered plane to high altitude before releasing it to soar into space. Passengers in the space plane experience weightlessness and get a view of the Earth’s curvature from over 50 miles above sea level.
The crew for the upcoming flight includes members of the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy, as well as a Virgin Galactic astronaut instructor. They will conduct 13 experiments and collect data on their suits and sensors in the cabin. The experiments include measuring radiation levels in the mesosphere and studying how liquids and solids mix in microgravity.
Virgin Galactic has already sold around 800 tickets for future commercial flights, with prices ranging from $200,000 to $250,000 between 2005 and 2014, and $450,000 each since then. Initially, movie stars and celebrities were among the first to purchase seats. However, the company faced a tragedy in 2014 when a spaceplane broke apart midair during a test flight, resulting in the death of the copilot and serious injuries to the pilot.
Virgin Galactic’s main competitor in the suborbital space tourism sector is Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin has already sent 32 people into space but has been grounded since an accident during an unmanned flight in September 2022. The company has promised to resume spaceflights soon.
