Blasting into the Future with Virgin Galactic’s Unity 25 Mission
New Mexico –Virgin Galactic completed its first spaceflight mission called Unity 25 on Thursday, May 25th. It is the first since its founder Sir Richard Branson took flight in July 2021 and is set to begin commercial spaceflight next month. The test mission was 90 minutes. The VMS Eve carrier plane took off from Virgin Galactic’s Spaceport in New Mexico at 11:15am carrying the VSS Unity Spaceplane with the crew of six up 44,500 ft. There the VSS Unity separated itself from the mothership, ignited an engine and boosted itself into the space. The VSS Unity reached an altitude of 54.2 miles in space and experienced microgravity for three minutes before it came back to earth. Both the VSS Unity and the mothership VMS Eve landed safely according to the company’s Twitter updates.
This is the flight experience that the space tourism company will provide to its 800 customers who have already paid a price tag between $250,000 – $450,000 per ticket. The company plans to conduct fight missions once a month.
The crew of six were Chief astronaut instructor Beth Mosses, astronaut instructor Luke Mays, senior engineering manager Christopher Huie, internal communications senior manager Jamila Gilbert, and two space pilots Mike Masucci and CJ Sturckow, according to the company’s website.
The Virgin Galactic mission took place after a 22 month pause for spacecraft upgrades due to safety probes by the U.S Federal Aviation Administration. “Today’s Unity 25 spaceflight is the last step in our flight test program. Our team will complete inspections of the vehicles and review data in the coming weeks. We’ll begin the commercial service with the ‘Galatic 01’ mission,’ the company wrote on Twitter.
