Virgin Galactic successfully launches its first three-passenger commercial spaceflight | Science and the planet

Virgin Galactic has so far only reached space with members of its private company as passengers. During the first commercial flight, “VSS Unity” had four passengers: two senior officers of the Italian Air Force, an engineer from the Italian National Research Council and an employee of Virgin Galactic. There were also two pilots at the wheel.

The mission, dubbed Galactic 01, launched Thursday from Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert. Italian scientists collected data for dozens of experiments during the short trip. During the flight, the passengers experienced weightlessness for a quarter of an hour. Then the spacecraft descended to land in the same place.

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Virgin Galactic said the next commercial launch is scheduled for early August “with private astronauts”. According to the company, tickets for the trip, which takes about an hour and a half, cost between $250,000 and $450,000.

Branson isn’t the first company to offer private spaceflight. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his company, Blue Origin, have already sent many passengers into space. Elon Musk’s space company, SpaceX, is also a competitor. Musk’s company has so far flown two private missions to the International Space Station (ISS).