The ship took on board two senior Italian Air Force officers, an engineer from the National Research Council, and a Virgin Galactic employee.
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A major milestone for Virgin Galactic. The space tourism company’s first commercial flight reached space on Thursday, June 29, the company founded by billionaire Richard Branson announced. The company founded in 2004 had already reached space five times, but so far with only company members on board. The ship, VSS Unity, was carrying four passengers here: two senior Italian Air Force officers, an engineer from the Italian National Research Council (CNR), as well as a Virgin Galactic employee accompanying them. Two pilots were also at the controls.
The spacecraft exceeded 80 km in altitude, the limit marking the beginning of space according to the American army, announced a commentator in the live video of the company. “Welcome to space, astronauts”, rejoiced Sirisha Bandla, an employee of Virgin Galactic who herself made the trip. Once in weightlessness, an Italian flag was unfurled in the cabin.
Ticket price: $450,000
The mission, called Galactic 01, took off from the base of Spaceport America, in the desert of the American state of New Mexico. A huge carrier plane took off at 8:30 a.m. local time (4:30 p.m. in Paris) from a conventional runway. About an hour later, some 15 km up, he dropped the craft, a rocket plane that looks like a large private jet. It then turned on its engine and accelerated vertically. For a few minutes in weightlessness, the passengers were able to detach themselves from their seat and float in the cabin. Then the ship came down again while hovering to land on the same runway.
Richard Branson himself had made this brief space trip in July 2021, almost two years ago. But technical problems have delayed the commercialization. In May, the company finally completed its final test flight before commencing commercial operations. These have been expected for years. Around 800 customers, including some celebrities, have already purchased their tickets. The price was initially between 200,000 and 250,000 dollars per passenger, before being raised to 450,000 dollars.