06/08/2024
“Galactic 07 is back on the ground, now with astronauts. Our pilots, passengers and ship have landed safely at Spaceport America, New Mexico,” Virgin Galactic reported on the X social network a few minutes after landing.
The carrier plane took off from that southwestern state of the United States, from a conventional runway andafter ascending for about 50 minutes to an altitude of 13,582 meters, released the spacecraft docked at its bottom, called VSS Unity.
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Unity, with two pilots and four passengers, ignited its engine and accelerated vertically until it reached a maximum altitude of almost 88 kilometers, just above the 80 kilometers that mark the beginning of space, according to the definition of the US military. After a few minutes, in which the passengers floated weightlessly and could observe the curvature of the Earth, she landed again, sliding along the same runway. It reached a maximum speed of Mach 2.96, almost three times the speed of sound.
Beforehand, only the name of one passenger had been revealed: the Turkish Tuva Atasever, commissioned by the American company Axiom Space to carry out various scientific experiments. According to a statement from Virgin Galactic, he carried sensors to recover brain data and two adrenaline injectors to make observations in microgravity.
The ship also carried experiments from the American universities Purdue and Berkeley.
Founded in 2004 by the British billionaire Richard BransonVirgin Galactic only initially announced that two passengers came from the United States and the fourth, from Italy.
Once the mission was completed, it was learned that they were all men: Andy Sadhwani, a propulsion engineer at SpaceX who worked for NASA; Irving Izchak Pergament, real estate developer and airplane pilot; and Giorgio Manenti, investment advisor in hotels and restaurants, according to the space company’s website. This was the company’s second flight in 2024 and its twelfth overall. A year ago, the company transported its first customers to space during the Galactic 01 mission.
Michel Colglazier, CEO of the firm, previously said that this seventh commercial mission would be the last for the VSS Unity, which will be replaced by the next-generation Delta model probably from 2026. It is “a turning point for the company, since we dedicate all our resources to the production of our new generation Delta spacecraft,” he assured.
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This new model, according to Virgin Galactic, will be able to carry six passengers, two more than the Unity. The company plans to build two of them initially. Later, the space company hopes to be able to carry out up to 125 flights a year. Test takeoffs are planned from 2025.
In the market for short-duration suborbital flights, Virgin competes with Blue Origin, from tycoon Jeff Bezos.
