‘Galactic 02, safe and sound.’: Virgin Galactic flies private astronauts into space for first time
Virgin Galactic — the company that will be building its spaceships at a new plant under construction in Mesa — sent a crew of private astronaut passengers into space from New Mexico’s Spaceport America Thursday morning for the first time in the space tourism company’s near 20-year history.
A gaggle of media inside Virgin Galactic’s “Gateway to Space” hangar — the centerpiece building at Spaceport America located about 25 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences — and onlookers outside the Spaceport’s security fence peered up through clear morning skies as VSS Unity, Virgin’s spaceship, carried a four-person crew nearly 55 miles above the southern New Mexico desert.
On board VSS Unity were three passengers — Jon Goodwin, Keisha Schahaff and Anastasia Meyers — and Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s lead astronaut instructor. The spaceship took off from the Spaceport at 8:30 a.m. It was carried by VMS Eve, Virgin’s “mothership,” up to around 45,000 feet before VSS Unity released at 9:17 a.m. and rocketed into zero gravity.
One minute and 30 seconds later, the four-person crew was in zero gravity — a shot upwards from 45,000 feet to over 250,000 feet above the Earth in a couple of minutes. Unity spent about three minutes in zero gravity as the crew unlatched from their seats and floated around the spaceship’s cabin. Then, through instruction from Unity’s pilots C.J. Sturckow and Kelly Latimer, the crew buckled back in and began the glide back down to Spaceport America.
The approximately 250 people on hand at the “Gateway to Space” building pointed their eyes upwards as VSS Unity descended, catching brief glimpses of the ship as it moved through the sparse clouds scattered throughout the sky. Then, at 9:32 a.m., Unity touched back down at the Spaceport and came to a full stop on the spaceport’s 12,000-foot horizontal runway.
The private astronaut mission, dubbed “Galactic 02,” lasted just over 90 minutes. VSS Unity hit a peak altitude of 290,000 feet, or just under 55 miles, and a max speed of mach-3, or three times the speed of sound, during the flight.
“Galactic 02, safe and sound,” Moses, the lead astronaut instructor, said outside the “Gateway to Space” building minutes after the ship touched down.
Virgin Galactic is currently building its spaceship assembly facility near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, and technology used in the design process for its Delta-class spaceships. The company expects the two-building facility in Mesa to be operational in 2024. The buildings are made up of 35,896 square feet and 115,200 square feet and will carry an address of 5559 S. Sossaman Road. As it opens, Virgin Galactic will hire “well into the hundreds” of engineering and manufacturing employees.
The company first announced that facility last summer, at the time saying it should be operational in late 2023.
Thursday’s flight marked the biggest milestone for Virgin Galactic, a company that’s long-time goal has been to make commercial space travel more easily accessible to passengers willing to dish out hefty sums for a seat on board VSS Unity. It costs $450,000 total for a seat, although tickets are currently only available through Virtuoso, a luxury and experiential travel company, as Virgin works through an 800-person backlog of reservations.
It’s the third time Virgin Galactic has flown people into space over the past four months following a final test mission called “Unity 25” on May 25 and a research mission dubbed “Galactic 01” with a four-person crew featuring two Italian Air Force officers and an Italian researcher on June 29.
Doug Ahrens, Virgin Galactic’s CEO, said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call Aug. 1 that it expects five more spaceflights out of Spaceport America before the end of the year.