Virgin Galactic completes first fully crewed test flight

Virgin Galactic has completed its first fully crewed test flight to the edge of space. During this Unity 22 mission, Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson and five other company crew members reached an altitude of about 86 kilometers.

The test flight was launched around 4:40 p.m. last Sunday, after a short delay due to bad weather conditions. The flight launched from the Spaceport America facility in New Mexico, with the VSS Unity spaceplane attached to Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo aircraft.

The VSS Unity undocked at an altitude of about 15 kilometers and moments later this spacecraft ignited its rocket engine on its way to the edge of space. During the suborbital spaceflight, the two pilots and four passengers experienced weightlessness for about four minutes, after which the spacecraft returned to New Mexico.

The Unity 22 mission crew and VSS Unity in flight. Source: Virgin Galactic

The Unity 22 mission is Virgin Galactic’s fourth crewed test flight, but the company’s first space mission with a full crew of two pilots and four specialists. The mission was originally planned for December last year, but it failed because the rocket motor failed to ignite. The flight was finally scheduled for last weekend.

In addition to Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, the crew included Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s chief instructor. Lead operations engineer Colin Bennet and Sirisha Bandla were also on board. The latter is Virgin Galactic’s vice president of government affairs and research activities. Pilots Mike Masucci and Dave Mackay rounded out the crew.

There is still controversy over whether Unity 22 has officially reached space. According to the guidelines of space agency NASA and the US Air Force, this is the case; they estimate the limit of space at an altitude of about 80 kilometers. Critics, including competing space company Blue Origin by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, however, point to the Kármán line as a space boundary, which lies at an altitude of 100 kilometers above the Earth. This has been established as a guideline by the international aerospace organization, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

Either way, the successful Unity 22 mission is a milestone for the company. Virgin Galactic plans to offer similar commercial suborbital flights to space tourists in the future. The company has already sold tickets for such flights, at a price of $ 250,000. However, Virgin Galactic has not yet taken on any commercial passengers. The space company will conduct two more test flights later this year and hopes to launch its first fully commercial flights starting next year.