Photo: Virgin Galactic
I don't know about you, but for me the title above comes a bit like a deja-vu. After all, it was just two short years ago when the royalty of private space exploration companies (Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic) were performing their inaugural private flights, promising to open the doors to civilian trips to space on a regular basis.
But after the 2021 boom in more or less famous civilians going to space, nothing truly spectacular happened. If anything, some of these companies, like Virgin Galactic, went back to the drawing board in a bid to fine-tune the experience for paying customers.
In the case of Virgin expectations are customer flights will commence as soon as June 2023. There's even a name for the mission expected to depart then, Galactic 01, but we don't know who makes up the crew at the time of writing.
Before that happens, another hurdle has to be overcome though. It's called Unity 25, and it will be the final dress rehearsal before commercial flights.
What that means is the flight will be packed full with Virgin employees sent there to evaluate what customers will experience during their flights. After all, at hundreds of thousands per ticket, one can't really allow for mistakes.
The crew for Unity 25 is made up of pilots Mike Masucci and CJ Sturckow, and four other Virgin people that play the role of customers: Beth Mosses (Virgin's chief astronaut instructor), Luke Mays (former NASA astronaut trainer), Christopher Huie, and Jamila Gilbert.
The mission is in no way different than the ones performed until now, including the one that carried Virgin's boss Richard Branson up there. The VMS Eve carrier airplane will lift the Unity spaceship to a set altitude, from where it will launch and climb some more to move past the Karman line. After a brief stay up there, the ship will come back down and touch down on its designated runway.
We've known all of the above for a while now, but this week Virgin announced when the launch window for the mission will open. Coincidently or not, that date is May 25, a day when the Eve and Unity are now expected to depart from Spaceport America.
The crew on board will try to get a feel of the actual "customer experience" aboard the spacecraft. If all goes well, Virgin is open for business. If not, who knows, maybe it'll follow in the footsteps of sister Virgin Orbit, which recently declared bankruptcy in a bid to sell itself to some other dreamer.
Just a reminder of how much a trip up with Virgin Galactic will cost, it's almost prohibitively expensive. If you want the experience, you'll have to place a $10,000 temporary credit card authorization. After talking with Virgin staff, and if you still want to go, you'll be asked to pay a $150,000 deposit, of which $25,000 you'll never see back in case you change your mind.
On top of that, Virgin charges something called a $300,000 balance, for a grand total of $450,000. That includes the flight itself, but also a multi-day training and preparation retreat at Spaceport America, including for family and friends, bespoke flightwear, astronaut insignia, and, of course, photographs and video.
In the case of Virgin expectations are customer flights will commence as soon as June 2023. There's even a name for the mission expected to depart then, Galactic 01, but we don't know who makes up the crew at the time of writing.
Before that happens, another hurdle has to be overcome though. It's called Unity 25, and it will be the final dress rehearsal before commercial flights.
What that means is the flight will be packed full with Virgin employees sent there to evaluate what customers will experience during their flights. After all, at hundreds of thousands per ticket, one can't really allow for mistakes.
The crew for Unity 25 is made up of pilots Mike Masucci and CJ Sturckow, and four other Virgin people that play the role of customers: Beth Mosses (Virgin's chief astronaut instructor), Luke Mays (former NASA astronaut trainer), Christopher Huie, and Jamila Gilbert.
The mission is in no way different than the ones performed until now, including the one that carried Virgin's boss Richard Branson up there. The VMS Eve carrier airplane will lift the Unity spaceship to a set altitude, from where it will launch and climb some more to move past the Karman line. After a brief stay up there, the ship will come back down and touch down on its designated runway.
We've known all of the above for a while now, but this week Virgin announced when the launch window for the mission will open. Coincidently or not, that date is May 25, a day when the Eve and Unity are now expected to depart from Spaceport America.
The crew on board will try to get a feel of the actual "customer experience" aboard the spacecraft. If all goes well, Virgin is open for business. If not, who knows, maybe it'll follow in the footsteps of sister Virgin Orbit, which recently declared bankruptcy in a bid to sell itself to some other dreamer.
Just a reminder of how much a trip up with Virgin Galactic will cost, it's almost prohibitively expensive. If you want the experience, you'll have to place a $10,000 temporary credit card authorization. After talking with Virgin staff, and if you still want to go, you'll be asked to pay a $150,000 deposit, of which $25,000 you'll never see back in case you change your mind.
On top of that, Virgin charges something called a $300,000 balance, for a grand total of $450,000. That includes the flight itself, but also a multi-day training and preparation retreat at Spaceport America, including for family and friends, bespoke flightwear, astronaut insignia, and, of course, photographs and video.
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