(Washington) Virgin Galactic took its first customers into space on Thursday, a major step for the company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, which should allow it to relaunch in the coveted sector of space tourism after a delay at the ignition compared to its competitors.
The company, founded in 2004, has already reached space five times, but so far with only company members on board, unlike Blue Origin, which has already taken many customers beyond the final frontier.
The Virgin Galactic ship, VSS Unity, carried four passengers on Thursday: two senior Italian Air Force officers, an engineer from the Italian National Research Council (CNR), as well as an employee of the company les accompanying. Finally, two pilots were at the controls.
The ship exceeded 80 kilometers in altitude, the limit marking the beginning of space according to the American army. “Welcome to space, astronauts”, rejoiced from Earth Sirisha Bandla, a Virgin Galactic employee who herself made the trip in 2021.
Once in weightlessness, an Italian flag was unfurled in the cabin.
“It was an unforgettable experience,” Colonel Walter Villadei told a press conference, describing the contrast between the darkness of space and the Earth. Admiring this view was “really the best moment”, he said.
The mission, dubbed 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 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 until it reached an altitude of 85 km, offering a few minutes of weightlessness. 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. The United States Aviation Agency (FAA) then temporarily grounded the spacecraft to investigate a course deviation during this highly publicized flight.
Then Virgin Galactic announced a pause in its operations, dedicated to improving its machine, which lasted much longer than expected.
In May, the company finally completed its final test flight before commencing commercial operations.
Monthly flights
These have been expected for years. About 800 customers, including some celebrities, have already purchased their tickets – for a price initially between 200,000 and 250,000 dollars per passenger, before being raised to 450,000 dollars.
Virgin Galactic’s space program has been years behind schedule, notably due to an accident in 2014 that killed a pilot.
Thursday’s flight was presented as having a scientific vocation, with several experiments carried out on board (on the behavior of liquids in weightlessness, the bodily reaction of passengers, etc.).
The new platform offered by Virgin Galactic fills a gap for research, explained Thursday Walter Villadei.
“If you look at the possibilities of flying in microgravity today for the international community, you can either fly a few seconds in parabolic flights […], or on the International Space Station for six months,” he recalled. “There is no in-between. »
After a second mission (Galactic 02) scheduled for August, Virgin Galactic promises space flights every month.
The company competes with billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which also offers short suborbital flights and has already sent 32 people into space — this time up to more than 100 km, the Karman line, which marks the beginning of space according to the international convention.
But since an accident in September 2022 during an unmanned flight, its rocket has been grounded. Blue Origin promised in March to resume spaceflight “soon”.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, has also conducted or participated in space tourism missions, but the experience offered is very different, as each time they lasted several days.