Virgin Galactic Completes First Fully Manned 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 approximately 86 kilometers.

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

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

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

The Unity 22 mission is Virgin Galactic’s fourth manned test flight, but the company’s first space mission with a full crew of two pilots and four specialists. The mission was initially scheduled for December last year, but failed due to the rocket engine failed to ignite. The flight was eventually 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. Pilots Mike Masucci and Dave Mackay round out the crew.

There is still controversy over whether Unity 22 has officially reached space. According to the guidelines of the 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 rival space company Blue Origin from former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, however, point to the karmán line as a space boundary, which lies at an altitude of 100 kilometers above the earth. This has been determined as a guideline by the international organization for aerospace, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

Either way, the successful Unity 22 mission is a milestone for the company. Virgin Galactic plans to offer similar commercial sub-orbital flights to space tourists in the future. The company has already sold tickets for such flights, priced at $250,000. However, Virgin Galactic has not yet taken a single commercial passenger on board. The space company is conducting two more test flights later this year and hopes to launch its first fully commercial flights from next year.