VIRGIN Galactic has sent its first paying clients into space.
The company’s first commercial trip, founded by billionaire Richard Branson, is a research mission with passengers paid for by the Italian Air Force and successfully launched on Thursday.
The trip unfolded in phases. It all started at Virgin Galactic’s spaceport in New Mexico, where passengers board the VSS Unity which is connected beneath the wing of a gigantic twin-fuselage mothership named VMS Eve.
VMS Eve then took off at 10.30am EST, barreling down a runway before ascending to more than 40,000 feet.
IThe VSS Unity was then released at 11.30am ET after reaching its assigned altitude and firing its rocket engine for around one minute as swooping directly upward, vaulting for the stars.
Future Virgin Galactic flights are planned to feature a variety of high-profile clients. Tickets initially started at $200,000 a seat, but are now averaging $450,000.
Follow our Virgin Galactic launch blog for news and live updates…
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Aircraft and crew have landed safely
The vehicle has landed and is beginning to slow down after having made its descent.
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Double-sonic boom
VSS Unity is beginning the process of re-entry and spectators will hear a “double-sonic boom” when that occurs.
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Passengers hold up Italian flag
The Italian Air Force is celebrating their centennial on this historic day as Pantaleone Carlucci, Colin Bennett, Col. Walter Villadei, and Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi experience zero gravity.
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On VSS Unity
VSS Unity, Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane, is The Spaceship Company’s first SpaceShipTwo.
The ship’s name was revealed on February 19, 2016.
Prior to the naming ceremony, the craft was known as SpaceShipTwo, Serial Number Two.
In 2004, there was speculation that Serial Number Two might be christened VSS Voyager, an unofficial moniker that was used frequently in media coverage.
Stephen Hawking, a British scientist, chose the name Unity.
Hawking’s eye also serves as the inspiration for the eye emblem on the side of Unity.
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‘Good control’
VSS Unity is airborne.
It is traveling at Mach 2 right now.
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A look at the outside at 20s from release
There are about 20 seconds to the release of VSS unity.
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Interior of aircraft
The crew can be seen sitting inside the aircraft.
Live from the Virgin Galactic launchCredit: Virgin Galactic -
Get to know the people on board: Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi
Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi is a physician who will be aboard the spacecraft to assess cognitive function in microgravity.
He will also investigate how different liquids and solids combine in microgravity.
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Get to know the people on board: Col. Walter Villadei
Colonel Walter Villadei is in command of “Virtute 1.”
Villadei will be in charge of the rack-mounted payloads that will be employed in the project.
In addition, he will be wearing a smart suit that will collect biometric data and physiological reactions.
He will also be in charge of carrying out the research.
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Get to know the people on board: Colin Bennett
Colin Bennett is a Virgin Galactic Astronaut Instructor.
He oversaw all training and preparation for the rest of the team.
During the trip, he will be onboard to investigate the flying experience.
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Get to know the people on board: Pantaleone Carlucci
Pantaleone Carlucci works at the Italian National Research Council as an engineer.
He will be performing research on heart rate, brain function, and other parameters in microgravity and during spaceflight.
Carlucci will wear sensors to assist in this research.
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VMS Eve
VMS Eve is a Virgin Galactic carrier mothership and launch platform for SpaceShipTwo-based Virgin SpaceShips.
Scaled Composites manufactured the VMS Eve for Virgin Galactic.
The prefix “VMS” stands for “Virgin MotherShip.”
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‘Everything is looking great’
The aircraft is at 45,000 feet now where they are preparing for the release of the ship.
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On today’s flight
Today marks the start of commercial space flights. On board today are:
- Pantaleone Carlucci, an engineer at the National Research Council of Italy
- Colin Bennett, an astronaut instructor at Virgin Galactic
- Col. Walter Villadei of the Italian Air Force, who is training for a “future orbital space mission” to the International Space Station, according to Virgin Galactic materials
- Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi, a physician with the Italian Air Force.
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Event to begin now
Virgin Galactic is broadcasting its first commercial spaceflight live online for free right now.
On June 29, the business, which is part of billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, will launch its first commercial journey into suborbital space.
The stream can be accessed on this blog.
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Virgin Galactic launches:
The following are successful Virgin Galactic launches:
- 2018: On December 13, Branson successfully reached space for the first time, reaching a height of 51.4 miles above the Earth
- 2019: On February 22, Virgin Galactic reached space for the second time in ten weeks with three people on board, reaching three times the speed of light on the way up
- 2021: On May 22, VSS marked the first-ever manned space flight from New Mexico
- 2021: On July 11, the first flight with a full crew of six onboard will take place.
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The launch of Richard Branson’s first spaceship
After years of fine-tuning, Branson successfully reached space for the first time on December 13, 2018.
SpaceShipTwo’s Unity plane flew higher than ever before in a test that marked a huge step toward Sir Richard’s goal of firing paying customers into space this year.
The flight, launched from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California at 3.15pm GMT, soared to an altitude of 50 miles above Earth’s surface strapped to a carrier plane called WhiteKnightTwo.
It successfully separated from its mother ship around 45 minutes after liftoff and engaged its rocket thrusters, reaching speeds of Mach 2.9.
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Virgin Galactic’s worth
The space tourism company’s net worth is currently estimated at $4billion (£2.9billion).
Meanwhile, in July 2021, Forbes listed Branson’s net worth at $5.7billion (£4.1billion).
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More on Richard Branson
Branson launched Virgin Galactic in 2004, with the hope of offering future trips to space.
Richard also created Virgin Media, Virgin Racing, and Virgin Comics.
In 2007, he was placed in the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World list.
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What to know about Richard Branson
Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Galactic.
The British billionaire, 70, is a self-made businessman who launched his company Virgin almost 50 years ago.
He was born in Blackheath, London, in 1950 and started his first venture, Virgin Records, in 1972, which he later sold to EMI in 1992 for $630million (£500million).
The dad-of-two has started up some very lucrative companies along the way, including Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1984 and Virgin Trains in 1993.
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Company has lost money – for a good cause
For years, the company has been losing money, burning through finances as it strove to complete its test flights and began inviting clients – some of whom paid for their tickets more than a decade ago, CNN reported.
The business has sold around 800 tickets, 600 of which were priced up to $250,000 and another few hundred at $450,000.
The Italian Air Force first agreed to a Virgin Galactic flight in 2019, and the corporation has long planned to launch it before more tourism-oriented flights.
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Importance of the trip
This journey will represent one of the most important leaps ahead for Virgin Galactic since the company’s inception in the early 2000s when Branson fell in love with a space plane designed by aviation designer Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Branson had hoped to begin flying rich customers as early as 2008.
Virgin Galactic has spent the last two decades preparing for commercial operation an updated version of Rutan’s space aircraft, built to transport people in the cabin.
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Virgin Galactic explained
Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight firm formed by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, in which Virgin Investments Limited holds an 11.9 percent share.
It is based in New Mexico and has its headquarters in California.
The business is constructing commercial spacecraft with the goal of providing space travelers with suborbital spaceflights.
The suborbital spacecraft of Virgin Galactic is launched from beneath the carrier plane White Knight Two. Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spacecraft made its first spaceflight in 2018.
Branson had aimed for a first spaceflight by 2010, but the schedule was pushed back many years and then pushed back again, owing principally to the October 2014 disaster of VSS Enterprise.
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Zero-gravity research experiments
The Italian Air Force and National Research Council chose a suite of 13 experiments for this suborbital journey.
It contains studies on how passengers’ pulse rates respond during acceleration, an effort to quantify cosmic radiation in the high atmosphere, and an assessment of how various biofuels behave in microgravity under varying pressures.
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Bringing in zero gravity
Researchers are particularly interested in the brief periods in which VSS Unity will be in zero gravity.
NASA and other organizations have frequently performed suborbital rocket tests, including Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin flights.
The weightless environment may provide scientists with a better fundamental knowledge of how something works — as well as disclose valuable data about a material’s behavior in space.
Suborbital flights can also be significantly less expensive than launching an experiment to the International Space Station, which necessitates much larger rockets and greater speeds.
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
