Four passengers nearly reached outer space in 90-minute flight
The space company Virgin Galactic successfully completed its sixth commercial flight, called Galactic 06. As part of this mission, four passengers went into suborbital space and returned safely to Earth.
After a successful landing at the New Mexico space port, Virgin Galactic announced the return of the spacecraft. Galactic 06 launched with the help of the manned spaceplane VSS Unity, which rose to an altitude of about 13,670 meters using the carrier aircraft VMS Eve. After separating from Eve, Unity activated its rocket engine and headed into suborbital space.
For several minutes, the passengers of Galactic 06 enjoyed weightlessness and observed the Earth against the backdrop of the universe. After about 90 minutes of takeoff, they landed on the spaceport runway. Virgin Galactic did not broadcast the flight live, limiting itself to a text broadcast on the X portal.
The identities of Galactic 06's passengers were kept secret until launch, with the company only revealing their home countries and states. Galactic 06 was Virgin Galactic's first mission this year and one of the last flights for Unity.
The company plans to decommission this space plane, which is currently the only means of all space flights for Virgin Galactic. The reason for this decision was the focus on developing the next generation Delta class spaceplane.
Each of the Delta class aircraft will be able to fly into space twice a week. The first such device is planned for testing in 2025, and commercial operation is planned to begin a year after that.
Virgin Galactic's competitor in the suborbital space tourism industry is Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos. They also send people and cargo using their reusable spacecraft, New Shepard. After a failed unmanned launch in September 2022, New Shepard returned to flight recently. However, no passengers have taken part in New Shepard launches since August 2022.
Tickets to fly the six-seat Unity currently cost $450,000. Ticket prices from Blue Origin have not been disclosed.