Virgin Galactic made the first fully commercial flight of its air-dropped SpaceShipTwo rocket plane VSS Unity on 29 June. The nearly 14 minute long Galactic 01 mission (from drop to landing) flew successfully to the edge of space before landing safely back at the Spaceport America landing strip. The flight began with the lift-off of the carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo at 1426 GMT from the Spaceport America runway in New Mexico.
SpaceShipTwo Unity blasts itself vertically after its airdrop. Courtesy: Virgin Galactic
The Italian Flag is got out by Galactic 01’s passengers. Courtesy: Virgin Galactic
At circa 45,000 feet, the rocket plane was released at 1528 GMT and almost immediately ignited its rocket engine. The rocketplane accelerated before shutting down and coasting to an eventual altitude of 85.1 km – below the official Karman line space boundary but above the US military’s 80 km definition of space. The crew was Mike Massucci and Nicola Pecile with Colin Bennett as the flight attendant/cabin coordinator. The passengers (or more correctly “participants”) were from the Italian Air Force: Walter Villadei, Angelo Landolfi and Pantaleone Carlucci.
Two minutes of microgravity conditions allowed the passengers to float and start their bio-medical and space experiments for the Italian Air Force. One involved measuring heart rates under acceleration, while others examined cosmic radiation and how pressurised biofuels behave in microgravity.
With the passengers safely strapped back in before the descent, the feathering deployment of the tail took place. This causes the craft naturally to want to backflip. This is held via thrusters at one position to allow the passengers a better view of the Earth, before being allowed to complete ready for atmospheric re-entry. This went normally as did the energy conserving glide back to the runway with the landing occurring at circa 1440 GMT.
Comment by David Todd: This has been a long time coming. Commercial operations were supposed to begin in 2011 – and some of those who booked to fly are now too old to do so. Nevertheless, congratulations to Virgin Galactic for finally making it.
The Galactic 01 mission returns to Earth. Courtesy: Virgin Galactic
