Virgin Galactic Takes Customers to Space After 19 Year Wait

After nearly two decades since its founding by British billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic has achieved a major milestone by taking its first paying customers to the edge of space. According to Space.com, the company’s VSS Unity rocket plane carried three Italian passengers on a suborbital space journey that lasted 72 minutes, from takeoff to touchdown at Spaceport America in New Mexico. During the flight, Col. Walter Villadei, Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi from the Italian Air Force, and engineer Pantaleone Carlucci from Italy’s National Research Council conducted various experiments, most of which involved the experience of weightlessness.

CNN reports that the VMS Eve mothership released Unity after reaching an altitude of over 40,000 feet. The spacecraft also carried company astronaut instructor Colin Bennett, as well as pilots Mike Masucci and Nicola Pecile. This marked the first time that four Italians have been in space together, and in celebration, Villadei unfurled an Italian flag in microgravity, as reported by the AP. While Branson and five crewmates had previously gone to space in a 2021 test flight, this is the first time that any of the approximately 800 individuals who have purchased Virgin Galactic tickets have made the journey.

According to Quartz, Virgin plans to start taking passengers to space on Unity on a monthly basis, beginning in August. However, at this rate, it would take nearly 17 years to clear the existing backlog. The company, which had initially anticipated starting the flights in 2007, intends to introduce a new series of rocket planes in 2026 in an effort to increase the frequency to one journey per week. Tickets for these flights are priced at up to $450,000. The mission that took place on Thursday was named Galactic 01, and the August flight will be Galactic 02, according to the BBC. (Read more Virgin Galactic stories.)