At the end of this week, we will once again be on the verge of having commercial flights to space become an every-month occurrence. Sure, we believed that was about to happen a couple of years ago as well, but this time one of the companies involved in this industry, Virgin Galactic, seems to be determined to make the activity commonplace.
Back in May, Virgin conducted the final test flight, sending a bunch of its employees to the edge of space in a bid to test the customer experience on board the Unity spacecraft. All went according to plan, so now Richard Branson's company is on the verge of starting monthly flights to the edge of our world.
The first flight is called Galactic 01, and as announced ever since several weeks ago, it will take up there members of the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy, which take the trip for scientific purposes.
It was today, June 26, when the company revealed both the tentative date for the flight, and the names of the people traveling on the Unity.
Galactic 01 is scheduled to depart New Mexico on June 29, 2023, carrying with it two pilots and a crew of four people. One of them, Collin Bennet, is on Virgin's payroll. It's a name you might already know, as he has already been up there as part of the Unity 22 trip, together with his boss, Branson, and a bunch of others.
Bennet will accompany three Italians: Colonel Walter Villadei and Lieutenant Colonel Angelo Landolfi from the Italian Air Force, and National Research Council engineer Pantaleone Carlucci.
The European trio will conduct a total of 13 experiments as part of the mission they themselves call Virtute 1. During their 90-minute journey to space, the crew will look into things like biomedicine and thermos-fluid dynamics, but the exact details of the research were not announced.
Because of the nature of the flight, "Virgin Galactic will share a global livestream" of the mission. If you're interested in how things will unfold, you can follow the stream here starting on June 29 at 11 AM ET.
Although this is a private, commercial mission to space, the presence of air force professionals on board still makes it look a bit like some sort of an official deal. The true spaceflights for civilians are expected to begin in early August, when Galactic 02 will depart.
The names of the people who will pay about half a million dollars for a short but intense journey beyond the Karman line were not yet announced, but just like it happened today, we expect to get the full details a few short days before the actual mission.
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News